Hostage
by ZVArmy
Summary: Taking a contract to kidnap an inventor named Becky Lynch seemed like easy money for Bayley, Charlotte and Ronda. However, things go wrong when the person who ordered the kidnapping doesn't show up to complete the exchange. The team don't have the payment, but they do have the valuable hostage, so what should they do next? And might feelings develop between Bayley and Becky? (F/F)
1. Chapter 1 - Part One

_For Ads611 - A true friend_

 ** _Hostage_**

 ** _Part One_**

"God damn it!"

"Something wrong, Jim?" Becky Lynch asked as she approached the reception desk from behind. She could see that the security guard had decided to try and deal with some of the boredom of the night shift by watching some highlights of a soccer game on his iPad, which was standing on the corner of the desk. It wasn't as if she could blame him. Guarding an empty office building all night had to be one of the most boring jobs in the world.

"Sorry, Ms Lynch. I didn't hear you coming. That was never a red card," he added, looking angrily at the iPad.

"No? But that was a goal," she pointed out as the team that Jim apparently liked conceded after a defensive error.

"That's more than enough of that," he said, hitting the device's power button. With that, he heaved his enormous frame out of his chair and walked around the desk. At this time of night, he needed to unlock the building's front door to let her out.

Becky yawned as she waited for him by the door. It had been another very long day. That was life, though, when you were heading up a project such as the one she was working on. All of the hours would be worth it when her invention finally went into production. Even conservative estimates valued her new computer chip, named the BL-04, at more than ten million dollars. If her own estimates on the chip's performance proved to be correct, which was what she and her team were currently in the process of testing, it had the potential to increase the processing power of military supercomputers by more than 65 per-cent. The American government would virtually allow her to name her price in return for exclusive access to the chips.

"You're the last one to leave, again," Jim said as he lumbered up to the door. "They really need to give you a pay rise."

He had no idea that Becky was in fact the mastermind behind the company who employed him. That information was way above his pay grade.

Becky smiled kindly. "Maybe one day, Jim. You never know what's around the corner, do you?"

"You sure don't," Jim agreed as he used a key card to unlock the large glass door and held it open for her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Becky walked out into the street, stopping for a moment to button up her jacket against the cold.

A white van was parked half a block down the street. There was no reason for anyone to pay special attention to it. No one could see through the small tinted windows in the rear doors that there were two blonde women in the back of the van, both looking through binoculars. They were dressed in black from head to toe.

"That's her," one of the women said.

"Confirmed. She's walking to her car. Move out," the other one sternly ordered the van's driver, a dark haired woman, as Becky's car pulled out of the parking lot up the street a minute later.

The engine fired up and the driver made an easy U-turn on the almost deserted street.

* * *

Becky Lynch had a brilliant mind when it came to technology. What she didn't know was anything about was counter surveillance. That much was obvious to the woman driving the van. Although she had made sure to keep several cars between the van and the target's car once they had found themselves on busier roads, she had been able to tell that the redhead had barely looked in her mirrors at all. So much the better. Having the element of surprise would make their first job a lot easier.

"Still on her tail, Bayley?" a voice asked from the back. "She must be nearly home by now, if she's sticking to her routine."

"I know what I'm doing, Charlotte," Bayley replied patiently. "She's three cars ahead of us, and has no idea we're here."

"Alright. Just keep a close eye on her."

"Shut it," the third woman ordered harshly. "Focus on your job, and let Bayley focus on hers."

"Sorry, Ronda," Charlotte said. "I'm focused."

A few minutes later she felt the van taking a slow right turn, and guessed where they were. They had scouted Ms Lynch's routine enough times. Having a routine was a really bad idea when you also happened to have an idea that was worth millions of dollars, as the inventor was soon going to learn.

"We're on her street," Bayley said from the front. "Put your masks on and get ready."

Charlotte and Ronda each had a black ski mask to put on. Once they had done so, their eyes were the only things not covered in black. If anyone did happen to see what was about to happen, which was extremely unlikely at this late hour, there would be nothing to identify them. It was be hard enough to even make them out as women.

"As soon as we stop, you open the doors, I'll grab her and get her in here, you shut the doors," Ronda told Charlotte.

"Got it."

Becky lived in a perfectly ordinary two storey house, on a perfectly ordinary street. The BL-04 chip was her big breakthrough, and promised to change her circumstances for good, but for now she lived like countless millions of other people across the country. Pulling her car up to the curb outside her house, she stifled another yawn, looking forward to the prospect of getting into bed as soon as she could.

Tiredness certainly didn't help her reactions when she got out of the car. As she locked the door, a white van drove past her slowly, moving partially over to the other side of the street to avoid her. Even the quiet squeak from its brakes didn't alert her to the possibility that something might be wrong.

Only when she saw the doors fly open out of the corner of her eye did she notice the danger. It was already much too late by then. A figure clad all in black, including a ski mask, was charging towards her, with another standing at the back of the van.

The second it took her to process that these people were going to kidnap her was a precious second that she didn't have the luxury of wasting. She tried to get her legs moving to run away, but before she made it two paces a strong arm wrapped around her waist.

Becky attempted to scream for help but a latex gloved hand clamped tightly over her mouth, turning her cry into a stifled growl. Trying to struggle out of her attacker's grasp proved futile, and the kick that she did manage to get in on the other person's leg had no effect.

Within seconds she had been dragged backwards into the back of the van. Panic combined with the hand over her mouth, which was also half covering her nose, made it almost impossible for her to breathe. She attempted to scream again, but this time it was even less effective than before.

"Shut the fuck up," Ronda ordered Becky, forcing her down onto her front on the wooden sheets that constituted the van's bed, then planted a knee between her shoulder blades to keep her pinned down. Keeping her hand clamped tightly in place, she half turned to Charlotte. "Tie her up, quick. And make it secure."

Charlotte closed the rear doors and the van started moving, only seconds after it had stopped.

"Hmmmmph!" Becky screamed into the hand as she tried to writhe her way out from under her attacker, who, shockingly, was a woman. Lying on the floor with her head turned to one side, all she could see was the side of the van and the wooden floor. There were no clues as to who these people were.

Charlotte had several lengths of rope ready to secure their hostage. First, she wrenched Becky's hands behind her back, causing her to scream in pain, and tied her wrists tightly together, finishing with a type of knot that she knew would never come undone due to Becky struggling. In fact it would get tighter the more she fought against it.

Unable to resist against being tied up, and unable to effectively scream for help, Becky tried to move her mouth enough to bite the hand that was covering it. Her efforts proved partially successful, but all she really got was a mouthful of nasty tasting latex, followed by a hefty punch to the right side of her head.

"Bite me and I'll kick your teeth down your throat," the woman snarled in her ear. "Lie still and shut up, and you won't get hurt. If we wanted to hurt you, I'd have caved your head in by now."

"Nmm pmmph," Becky mumbled as she felt her ankles being tied together, the rope already biting cruelly into her skin through her socks. At least she had a long sleeved jacket on to prevent the same feeling in her wrists.

The realisation began to set in that she wasn't going to escape. It was incredibly unlikely that anyone had noticed her abduction taking place, and even if she could somehow get out from underneath the woman who was pinning her down, there was at least one more in the back of the van with her. Maybe it was better to keep herself safe by cooperating for now and see where these people were taking her and what they wanted, she thought.

"That's better," Ronda said, feeling Becky stop fighting her.

Charlotte lifted Becky's ankles, then wrenched her bound wrists up as close to them as she could, which made her cry in pain again. After some more quick work with a length of rope, Becky was secured in a hogtie that she couldn't hope to escape from.

"Good. Now gag her," Ronda ordered, shifting her weight off their captive and moving to the side to give her partner more room to work, but keeping her hand in place until her Charlotte was ready.

Charlotte had a sock and a white hand towel ready for the purpose. She rolled the sock up into a ball and held it near to Becky's mouth.

Having no intention of being gagged as well as tied up, Becky chose not to scream when the hand was removed from over her mouth. Instead she kept her lips closed as tightly as she could. Straining against her bonds, she realised that she was capable of virtually no movement at all. The pain in her shoulders was especially excrutiating.

"Really?" Ronda said impatiently, and pinched Becky's nose to stop her breathing through it.

Left with no choice, Becky had to open her mouth to breathe, even though she knew what would happen as soon as she did. Charlotte stuffed the rolled up sock into her mouth.

"Don't try and spit it out," Ronda warned her while Charlotte rolled the hand towel a couple of times on its width, making it the perfect size for a thick, effective gag.

"Mmppph!" Becky protested as the towel was forced between her teeth. It was then wrapped around her head and tied off just as tightly as the ropes were.

"Good," said the person who had tied her up. It was another woman!

"Now lie still, and stay quiet," the first voice told her, before issuing another order to her accomplice. "Get the blindfold on her."

"Nnmmm," Becky pleaded, biting down on the towel as hard as she could. It was no use. There was no way she would be able to chew through the gag, or work the sock past it to get it out of her mouth. These people knew what they were doing.

Another hand towel was quickly tied around her head, covering her eyes. Unable to see, move, or talk, Becky felt scared to death. The feeling of utter helplessness was like nothing she had ever felt before. Apart from the sound of the van's engine, silence had now descended. She knew the two women were still there though, and were willing to hurt her if she started struggling too much. Risking using her fingers to feel out the rope that was forcing her into the hogtie, she established that she couldn't find the knot, let alone untie it.

Breathing heavily through her nose, she moved on to trying to work on the gag. The cloth was tied so tightly between her teeth that the corners of her mouth rubbed painfully against it whenever she tried to move her lips. The sock in her mouth was already soaked through with her saliva, and drool began to leak down her chin. It felt so pathetic, and she was unable to do anything about it.

The only thing she might have been able to have any luck with was working the blindfold loose by rubbing her head on the floor, but she couldn't do that without being seen by her captors. In an attempt to relieve at least a small amount of the pain, she tried to work the rope around her wrists a little looser.

"Stop fucking struggling," she was ordered by the woman who had grabbed her off the street. "That's the last time I'm going to tell you without giving you a kicking."

Charlotte grinned across the van at the leader of the three woman team. The job had gone well so far, so much so that Ronda even smiled back at her, which was a real rarity. With their hostage blindfolded, they had been able to remove their ski masks. Lying on the floor between them was a million reasons to smile. In less than twenty four hours the million dollars they were going to exchange for Becky Lynch would be in their hands, which was in addition to the million they had been paid up front. With the payday being split equally between them, they were looking at collecting the best part of three quarters of a million dollars each. Not bad at all for a day's work. There hadn't even been much risk or difficulty involved.

Panic threatened to consume Becky, but she used all of the inner strength she could find to try and keep calm. The position she was in was terrifying and painful, but she hadn't actually been hurt by her abductors. The woman had told her she wouldn't be hurt if she stayed quiet and didn't struggle. She had to hope that meant they wanted her alive. That certainly seemed to make the most sense. If she had been abducted by men, she would have been afraid of being raped and murdered, but that seemed a lot less likely with women. No, it made more sense for this to be about the BL-04 chip. But why would they kidnap her? Surely it made more sense to break into the office and steal her research data if that was what they wanted? And who were these people anyway? Those were all questions she didn't have answers to.

For now, what she had to do was repeat the same mantra in her head: Stay calm. Breathe. Stay calm. Breathe.

These people wanted, needed, her alive. That was good. Right now she was helpless, but they weren't going to keep her like this. This was just while they transported her to wherever they were going. She hoped that once they got there, they would let her out of the bondage and take off the gag. If she was lucky, she might even somehow get a chance to escape.

Mile after mile seemed to drag by. The pain and discomfort increased with each passing minute, which also made her fear grow. None of her captors were saying anything or even moving around. She tried to listen to the sounds of the van's engine and notice any changes in direction in the vague hope that she might figure out where they were heading. It wasn't working.

To try and relieve some of the pain, she risked turning her head to the other side. Thankfully, she received no reaction, either verbal or physical. Maybe the two women had fallen asleep? Could she be that lucky? She risked a soft moan into the gag and bit down on it again, trying to grind it between her teeth. Still no one said or did anything. As pathetic as it was, she began to feel a little hope. Willing no one to see her, she strained against her bonds again as hard as she could, and was able to reach the rope around her ankles. Desperately, her fingers probed for the knot.

Then she froze. Something cold and hard had been pressed against her throat. It had to be a knife. The second voice she'd heard whispered a much more chilling threat in her ear than the one the other woman had made. "She said she'd give you beating if you carried on struggling. I'll just cut your fucking throat. All I need is for you to give me a reason."

That was too much for Becky, who passed out from the fear.

"I think she passed out," Ronda informed her partner with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, she's still and quiet isn't she?" Charlotte shrugged.

"Good. We've still got a long way to go."


	2. Chapter 2

At first, Becky wasn't sure if she had regained consciousness or not. She thought she had opened her eyes, but everything was still black. Surely the splitting headache and the waves of pain from her shoulders and thighs had to be real though? So what the hell was going on? Then she noticed the sound of the van's engine and it all came flooding back to her. She had been snatched off the street by a team of kidnappers, at least two of whom were women. The pain was due to the fact that she had been tied up in a cruel hogtie that was now on the verge of making both her thighs go into cramp. Her shoulders were almost being wrenched out of their sockets. There was a blindfold over her eyes, which explained the blackness. And last but not least, a sock had been stuffed in her mouth to gag her, secured in place with some kind of towel tied between her teeth. It was no wonder she felt so thirsty; all of her saliva had been absorbed by the sock, which was now soaking wet in her mouth.

Desperate for the pain to stop, she moaned into the gag, hoping that her kidnappers would show some mercy. They could have secured her by tying her wrists and ankles. The hogtie really wasn't necessary. No response came, positive or negative. At least they hadn't hit her again. She could remember one of the women punching her in the side of the head after she had tried to bite the hand that had been covering her mouth when she'd first been bundled into the van.

Telling herself to try and keep calm, she attempted to ignore the pounding in her head and think about the situation she was in. Right now, she wasn't going to get free, that was for sure. The kidnappers had bound her much too securely for that. When would someone realise she was missing? When would they start looking for her? Not soon enough, she realised. She had been taken late at night, from outside her home. As she lived alone, no one would even begin to consider that anything was out of the ordinary until she failed to show up at the office in the morning. Even then, more hours would be lost while people assumed she was either late, or ill. She knew that the first few hours were crucial in a kidnapping, and apparently so did the people who had taken her. They had chosen exactly the right time to take her. By the time anyone even thought about going to her home to check on her, these people could have taken her almost anywhere. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious for, and therefore had no idea how far they might already have traveled.

Panic began to take hold again as the realisation dawned on her that help probably wasn't coming. Whoever the kidnappers were, they hadn't come this far without having somewhere in mind where they could hold her without being discovered. She was on her own, with the only hope being that she could somehow free herself, and that was about as unlikely as it could be at the moment.

If there was any kind of positive, it was that the kidnappers probably didn't want her dead. Yes, she had been threatened with a knife when she had been caught struggling against her bonds, but a couple of things definitely didn't point towards them having murder in mind. Most obvious was the blindfold. Why stop someone who you intended to kill from seeing you? It would make no difference if they saw you or not if they were going to soon be dead. And second, at least two of the team were women. That meant that rape and murder were a lot further down the list of possible motives than they would have been with a team of men. Trying to think it all through rationally, she could only surmise that these people wanted the BL-04 chip. Somehow, they must have an idea of the true value of it. They hadn't broken into the office and taken the project's data, though. Maybe they didn't plan on needing it? Maybe they were going to keep her captive somewhere where she could begin the work again, only this time they would take the chip to market themselves?

Becky was lucky that in her state of panic and confusion, she didn't think that series of potential events through to its inevitable conclusion for her. Instead she moved on to how she might make her immediate situation a little better for herself. She desperately needed to get out of the hogtie, and she needed something to drink.

"Mmmmph," she groaned into the towel again as she bit down on it in frustration.

"Quiet," a voice told her. She recognised it as the woman who had dragged her into the van.

"Mpppphh!" Becky protested even louder. She knew it was risky, but she couldn't just lie there in silence and take the pain. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, trying to force the sock out of her mouth past the towel. Unfortunately, the towel was thick enough that it expanded with her mouth as it opened and still filled the space between her teeth. There was no way she was going to be able to talk unless one of the women untied the gag for her.

"Look, we're nearly at the place we're taking you to," the same voice said. "When we get there, you can save a piss and have something to drink. Now shut the fuck up before I have to knock you out myself."

Becky had no idea if what she was being told was true. They could still be on the road for hours for all she knew. She needed something to drink now, and she needed the pain in her arms and legs to stop. Those two things were all she could think about.

"Lmmm mmmm gmmph!" she screamed as loud as she could, using all of the energy she had to strain against her bonds, not that there was almost any range of movement available to her. She sensed someone moving around in the back of the van, and hoped that they were going to relent and take the gag off. At least she would be able to plead for a drink.

"You don't seem to understand English," the second familiar voice said nastily. "You'd better learn pretty fast, because it's going to get real painful for you if you don't do what you're told. She told you to shut the fuck up."

Becky was taken by surprise by a vicious kick to the stomach. Crying out in pain, she instinctively wanted to curl up and protect herself, which was of course impossible in her predicament. It was hard enough to breathe with the towel tied in her mouth, and now the kick had driven the air out of her lungs. She whimpered pathetically as she tried her best to get air into her protesting lungs through her nose.

"There's plenty more where that came from. Now, like you were told before, shut the fuck up until we get to where we're going."

Not wanting to be hurt again, Becky lay there, wishing she could pass out again. It would be better off than enduring the rest of the journey in constant agony and fear.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably more like half an hour, she felt the van stop for a moment, then take a right turn. She could tell that they had turned off a road and were now driving on something different. Gravel, maybe? Had they pulled onto a driveway? She tensed up, guessing that they had reached their destination.

She was right, on the last point at least. Bayley had just turned the van onto a graveled track that led through a small wooded area to the wooden cabin that Ronda had rented for a week under a false name. It was the kind of place that nature freaks might come to escape the rat race for a week's vacation. There was nothing other than countryside and woodland anywhere nearby. No buildings, no people, nothing. If there was an ideal place to hold a hostage for a day, this was it. Without saying anything, she parked the van with the rear doors facing towards the cabin's entrance. It would make the next task that little bit easier for her colleagues in the back.

"Right, we're going to carry you inside now," Ronda told their captive. "Don't try struggling or screaming, or you're going to get hurt. Cooperate and you'll be fine."

Charlotte untied the rope that had hogtied Becky, leaving her wrists and ankles bound. Becky groaned in relief as Charlotte opened the van's rear doors and climbed out. Ronda followed her out, then turned and dragged Becky towards her by the ankles. Even though she tried her best not to, Becky let out a frightened protest. It was ignored as Ronda hauled her up and slung her over her shoulder, holding her legs to keep her in place.

Disoriented by the fact that her head was now upside down, Becky felt like she was going to be sick. That would be a very bad idea with a gag in her mouth, she knew.

Bayley walked over to the cabin and unlocked the door. She now had her ski mask back on, as did her two partners. Leading them inside, she made her way to one of the two bedrooms, which they had prepared as the place to keep Becky. The room had been emptied off all it's furnishings apart from the bed itself and a nightstand, on which stood a few bottles of water and several chocolate bars. That was all they would need. Something to tie Becky to, and some food and drink to satisfy her basic needs. There was also some essentials of a different nature: several more lengths of rope and a roll of duct tape. Bayley was satisfied with what she saw, reasoning that it was better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Ronda carried Becky into the room and lowered her onto the bed, lying on her front. "Now, you're lying on a bed. We're going to tie you to it to stop you going anywhere. That means I'm going to have to untie your wrists. Just so you know, there are three of us here, and the other two are holding knives. Trying anything clever, you're going to get cut up real bad. We want you alive, but there's no requirement for you not to be scarred for life. Understand?"

"Mmmm," Becky responded, trying to indicate that she would comply. She wasn't stupid enough to get herself attacked with a knife. At least being tied to a bed was a lot better than being left hogtied on a floor.

Ronda untied Becky's wrists, then roughly rolled her over onto her back. Charlotte grabbed one of her arms and hauled her further up the bed, so that her wrists could be passed between the framework at the head end of the bed. The two women used a length of rope each to tie Becky's wrists to the outermost bars. Just like that, their hostage was secured.

To Becky's surprise, her blindfold was then removed. The bright light from the single bulb in the ceiling blinded her at first, after not being able to see anything for so long. Blinking rapidly, her eyes adjusted in time to see one of the three figures walking out of the room. Two more stood there, looking down at her. Although they were wearing ski masks, she could tell they were both women. Either the whole team were women, or these were the two who had ridden in the back of the van with her.

"If you stay quiet, we'll take your gag off and give you something to drink." This was a new, gentler voice. So they were all women. This one must have been the driver. There was something close to sympathy in her brown eyes. Becky would think of her as the gentle one, she decided, needing some way to differentiate them from each other.

The other, taller woman had a nasty looking knife in her gloved hand, and very cold eyes. Green eyes. "Or I could just cut your fucking tongue out," she suggested. Becky decided to mentally refer to her as the bloodthirsty one. That knife had already been against her neck once, and she intended that to be her last encounter with it.

"Mmmph." She tried to convey obedience with her eyes.

"Okay," the gentle one said, leaning over the bed to work on untying the towel. The bloodthirsty one looked on, waiting for an excuse to use the knife, or so it seemed.

Mercifully, the gag was finally released, and the gentle one used two fingers to pull the sock out of her mouth. As tempting as it was, Becky resisted the urge to scream. Top priority was to have something to drink. Hopefully it would rinse the nasty taste of the detergent that the sock had been washed with out of her mouth as well.

Bayley removed the top from one of the bottles of water and held it to Becky's lips, noticing that the corners of her mouth looked sore from where the towel had rubbed against them. Holding the bottle at just the right angle to let Becky drink easily, without spilling the water everywhere, Bayley let her have the whole bottle in one hit.

"Thank you," Becky risked saying, watching the bloodthirsty one carefully. "Why am I here? What are you going to do with me?"

"Get that gag back in her mouth," the taller woman ordered her partner.

"No, please," Becky begged, but it was no use. The gentle one might not have had the same nasty streak as her friend, but she was clearly willing to do what she had to do. She picked up the sock again, and Becky saw no point in trying to prevent it being stuffed back into her mouth. It would only make them angry. The towel was then replaced, just as tightly as before.

"Sorry," the gentle one mumbled. "Can't take any risks."

Becky whimpered as she chewed down on the towel, trying to use her eyes to say that there was no risk. Inside, she cursed herself for asking questions. Maybe if she hadn't said anything, they wouldn't have re-gagged her?

"One of us will come back soon and take you to the bathroom. Maybe you can have something to eat as well. Until then, lie still and be quiet. We don't want to hurt you."

With that, both women turned and made their way out of the room. Becky raised her head to watch the door close, then heard a lock being turned. Even if she could get free, she was locked in the room. For the first time since she'd been snatched, she was alone. Looking down at her ankles, she saw how tightly the rope had been wrapped around her ankles multiple times, finished off with an elaborate knot that was never going to come loose.

Growling in frustration, she let her head fall back onto the pillow. The next thing that caught her eye was her right wrist, bound to one of the vertical bars of the bed's framework. To add to her frustration, there was a horizontal bar half way down, which prevented her from sliding her wrist down lower. If she had been able to do that, she just might have been able to stretch far enough to give herself a chance to pull the gag out of her mouth. As it was, the distance was much too great.

With another frustrated growl she tugged both wrists against their bonds as hard as she could manage. Pain was the only result. It was no good. Once again, although it was now less painful, she was helpless. Closing her eyes, she began to cry as that realisation took hold.

* * *

After leaving Bayley and Charlotte to attend to Becky, Ronda had walked into the cabin's living area to make a phone call, taking off her ski mask as she did so. It was important to keep the person who was paying them to do the job up to date on their progress. Dialing one of the two phone numbers she had been given, she discovered the phone in question was not available. That was strange. Luckily, she had a second number. When that number also failed to make a connection, Ronda knew that there might be a problem.

"What's wrong?" Charlotte asked when she and Bayley joined her, also taking off their masks.

"I just tried both of the numbers I have for Stephanie McMahon. Both phones are off. Something must be wrong."

"What makes you say that?" Charlotte asked.

Ronda gave her a withering look. Charlotte's ratio of muscle to brain power definitely wasn't equal. "She paid us a million dollars in advance to kidnap that girl in there, with another million to come. I'm going to suggest she wants her pretty badly. That tells me she would be sure to take any calls I might make."

"I don't get what's so important about some stupid computer nerd anyway. What does McMahon want her for?"

"She must be working on a project that's worth a lot of money," Bayley said, thinking that she was stating the obvious. "McMahon wants whatever knowledge is in that pretty little head of hers."

"Don't come with that lesbian shit of yours around me, Bayley," Charlotte snapped. "You know it creeps me out."

"Shut it," Ronda told her. As the leader of the group, she was obeyed. "Bayley's right. Becky Lynch is the designer of some new computer chip. When it was finished, she planned to sell it to the government, potentially for ten million dollars, maybe even more. Stephanie decided that she'd like that ten million for herself. If she simply stole the data and produced her own chip, Becky would probably be able to legally prove it was her work. I don't know how all that computer shit works. What I do know is, Stephanie plans to keep Becky in captivity while she starts the entire design process again, eventually giving McMahon Industries the chip to sell to the government. It's a simple but effective plan. At least, it's supposed to be."

"Ah, who gives a fuck?" Charlotte shrugged, walking over and sitting down on a couch. "She paid us the first million bucks, and we have the girl. It's not like McMahon's lost interest or something, is it? She'll be in contact."

"I've got to admit she's right," Bayley said, looking at Ronda. She began to peel off one of her black latex gloves.

"Stop!" Ronda ordered her quickly.

"What?"

"Don't take your gloves off. Leave them on at all times while we're here. I want no prints left behind."

"Why? Who's going to look here?" Charlotte asked.

"Why don't you let me do the thinking?" Ronda replied, with a raised eyebrow.

"My hands are sweating," Bayley mumbled.

"They'll be sweating if you get arrested, too," Ronda said. "We're taking no risks on this job, and we're leaving nothing to chance. No prints. Gloves on at all times. That's ground rule number one. While I'm at it, here are a couple more." She pointed in the direction of Becky's room. "Whoever has to take her to the bathroom, you take someone else with you into the bedroom while you untie her. You tie her hands behind her back before you leave the bedroom, and you help her with her clothes in the bathroom yourself. Is that clear?"

Both women nodded.

"And there's one more," Ronda went on. "Unless you're giving her something to eat or drink, she stays gagged at all times. No exceptions, and no feeling sorry for her. I'm looking at you, Bayley."

"I hear you," Bayley confirmed. "The gag stays on at all times."

"Good. The last thing I want is for some random asshole to come walking past here because he's spending the day taking his dog for walk and hear her screaming. There's a million dollars lying in that room, and we're not taking any chances with it. Not least because McMahon would probably have us killed if we fucked up."

"Message received," Charlotte said.

Ronda sat down beside her, letting out a deep sigh. "Bayley, why don't you go grab us all a beer from the fridge? We've had a long night."


	3. Chapter 3

Through the thick curtains, Becky could see that it was light outside. That meant she must have somehow gotten a few hours sleep - a big surprise given how uncomfortable she was with her wrists and ankles bound. She hadn't had a visit from any of her kidnappers since the previous night, when she'd been taken to the bathroom by the one who seemed to be in charge of the team. Becky had chosen to refer to her as the leader. The other two were certainly deferential to her.

Taking stock of her situation, she decided it was a good thing that she'd been left alone. The leader had told her she wouldn't be harmed if she didn't give them a reason. So far at least, she had lived up to her word. But why was she being held in this place? What was the point of it all? They had made no demands for information regarding the BL-04 chip, which would have made sense. In fact, they had shown no interest in talking to her at all. Had someone else ordered the kidnapping? That was the only thing that seemed to make sense. These people were probably going to hand her over to others in exchange for a previously agreed amount of money.

Being passed over into the custody of someone else didn't appeal to Becky at all, but she knew there wasn't anything she could do about it. It was pretty obvious at this point that the three woman team knew what they were doing and were not going to take chances or make mistakes. They would leave her right where she was, tied up, gagged, until it was time to hand her over to whoever the other people were. Crying in despair would have been so easy as she thought through her dire situation, but Becky forced herself to stay strong, pointing out to herself that crying would change nothing anyway.

Minutes ticked by. Becky didn't bother trying to free her wrists from their bonds. She'd spent long enough doing that the previous night, and all she had accomplished was to make the ropes rub and bite into her wrists, making the restraints a lot more painful than they had originally been. The same applied to her gag. Forcing the towel or the sock out of her mouth simply wasn't possible, much to her frustration. After being in place for so many hours overnight, the towel was now soaked through with her saliva, which made it feel even more unpleasant.

Letting her head roll to one side, her eyes settled on the night stand. It had been moved away from the bed, well out of range of where she might be able to reach it by swinging her legs around. Some of the objects on top of it were what interested her. Several bottles of water and a small assortment of chocolate bars. Feeling both hungry and thirsty, she longed for one of the kidnappers to come in and offer her something. She also needed to pee. The humiliation of lying there soaked in her own urine simply wasn't something she was prepared to endure. There was only one thing to do: take the risk of making one of the women come in and see her. Doing so might make them angry, but she decided she would do her best to look cooperative once someone came. Surely they had to realise they needed to give her food and water regularly, or why had they stocked up on it?

"Hmmmph," she tried to cry out, only realising when she heard how weak it sounded just how sore her throat was from lack of water.

She tried to clear her throat, then bit down hard on the towel as she tried to scream again, putting every bit of effort into it that she could manage. "Hmmmmmmppppph!"

There was no reaction. Becky began to wonder if the women were even there. That thought was panic inducing by itself. As much as he wanted to be free of these people, she needed them right now.

Footsteps out in the hallway. Thank God, she thought. Someone was coming. Lifting her head to look at the door, she found herself hoping it was the gentle one; the only one who had treated her with anything like compassion so far.

The door opened. Becky's heart sank. Although the kidnapper was still kitted out in her all black attire, including ski mask and gloves, Becky could tell which one it was straight away because of how tall she was. If she could have chosen any of the three not to come, it would have been the bloodthirsty one. This woman seemed to almost enjoy the prospect of hurting her, apparently wanting any excuse to do so without facing the wrath of the leader.

"What the fuck don't you understand about being quiet?" she was asked nastily.

"Nmmd tm pmmh," Becky mumbled, hoping that she was somehow understandable.

"For fuck's sake, why me?" the woman groaned to herself, then reluctantly trudged over to the bed.

Becky rested her head back on the pillow and lay perfectly still, wanting to look as compliant as she could, desperate to avoid provoking the dangerous woman at all costs. She had to be carrying the knife on her somewhere, and that thought scared Becky half to death. Then, to her immense relief, one of the other women walked into the room and stood by the door, keeping an eye on things.

"I'll untie your wrists, then. Try anything, I'll fuck you up good."

When her wrists were untied, Becky didn't dare to move until she was told, even to aid the circulation to her hands, which had now been fully restored, bringing pins and needles with it.

"Sit up then," she was ordered impatiently.

Becky sat up and her wrists were quickly secured again behind her back. The bloodthirsty one then crouched down and untied her ankles. While the going was good, Becky tried to gesture to the bottles of water with her eyes. "Mmmph." Frustratingly, her message wasn't understood this time, probably because the woman simply didn't care what she wanted.

"What, you're trying to tell me you need your mouth to piss? Shut up and move, before I change my mind."

* * *

Five minutes later, as Charlotte tied Becky to the bed once more, Bayley walked out of the bedroom and removed her ski mask. "I talked Charlotte into giving Becky something to eat and drink," she told Ronda, who was sitting on the couch, typing something on her phone.

"Congratulations," Ronda replied with disinterested sarcasm. "I'm more interested in what's going on with McMahon."

"Still no answer from her?" Bayley sat down next to her partner on the couch and took a look at her phone's screen.

"No. Not from either of her numbers. Something has to be wrong. We should have been told where to meet her for the exchange by now. I'm just looking to see if I can find anything on the news about..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened.

"What?" Bayley asked urgently.

"Oh shit," Ronda breathed. "She fucking got arrested. Oh shit."

"What?" Bayley repeated, taking the phone when she was offered it. She read aloud from the news website that was on the screen. "Respected Connecticut businesswoman and financial expert Stephanie McMahon arrested on suspicion of money laundering and arranging the murder of a lawyer, among other offenses."

"We're fucked," Ronda mumbled, still trying to process the news.

"It says here," Bayley went on, "That the feds had an agent on the inside at McMahon Industries, who managed to access some encrypted files on McMahon's laptop. They have concrete evidence of what they describe as a multitude of offenses. Ronda, what are we going to do? There's no way we can contact anyone who might be associated with Stephanie now. Anyone could be compromised at this point."

"I know, Bayley," Ronda snapped at her. "Just shut up, will you? I'm trying to think."

Charlotte chose that moment to walk out of the bedroom, locking the door behind her. "Happy now, Bayley? Your girlfriend had plenty to eat and drink."

"We're in the shit," Ronda said, looking up at her.

"Why?"

"McMahon got herself fucking arrested. They've got evidence on her for all kinds of shit, according to the news. We can't risk contacting anyone in her organisation. There's no way to know who can be trusted, who's compromised, or anything."

"Shit," Charlotte breathed, taking a seat on one of the two chairs in the room.

Silence descended on the group while they all tried to think of a way forward. A few minutes later, Bayley was first to speak. "Becky can't only be valuable to McMahon. There have to be other people out there who would take her."

Charlotte grunted derisively. "Great idea, genius. What are we going to do, start calling up technology companies at random and saying, 'We've kidnapped an inventor, she's yours for a million bucks.' I'm sure that wouldn't get us locked up. I say we kill her and cut our losses."

Ronda looked at her with an expression of distaste on her face. "What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said. Kill her. Dump the body. We've got McMahon's million dollars. It's hardly our fault she didn't show for the exchange. I say we keep the million, kill the girl and move on."

"No way," Bayley said, horrified. "Ronda, we can't do that."

"No one's killing anyone," Ronda said decisively. "None of us signed up to this job to start killing people."

"So what's the plan then?" Charlotte asked, somewhat downbeat.

"I have a lot of contacts," Ronda said thoughtfully. "I'll put the word out that we've abducted an inventor named Becky Lynch for Stephanie McMahon, and we now can't complete the deal, for obvious reasons. Anyone who wants to get their hands on whatever piece of electronic shit she was working on can take her off our hands for a million dollars. Hopefully someone will bite. Like Bayley said, she's obviously worth a lot of money. Or, should I say, her work is."

"Yes, I like the sound of that," Bayley said. "You know a lot of people, so hopefully someone will pay up. I'd even take less than a million at this point, just to get Becky off our hands and put this whole thing behind us."

"Let's see what offers we get, then we'll make a decision as a group," Ronda said, bringing an end to the discussion. She gestured towards the room where Becky was being held. "For right now, we need to prepare for the fact we're not getting rid of her today, or probably for a while. Assuming someone does want her, they'll need time to get the money together and meet us somewhere for the exchange."

"Great, locked up in this shit hole playing babysitter," Charlotte complained.

"Stop fucking whining," Ronda snapped at her. "You can come with me and make yourself useful. We're now going to need more supplies than we have here. We need to get food, drink, and anything else we might need. Bayley, it's a long run to get anywhere with a decent sized store. You're going to have to stay here and keep an eye on Becky. You are not to untie her under any circumstances until we get back. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," Bayley confirmed. She thought about saying that she wasn't an idiot, but Ronda was in no mood for smart answers, as Charlotte had just found out.

"Good. I'll get another burner phone, too, and get rid of this one. I'll make my calls when we get back. Come on, let's go," Ronda told Charlotte as she picked up the keys to the van and headed for the door.

Bayley sighed when she heard the cabin's front door close. What a mess this job was turning into. She had been in two minds about taking part when Ronda had made the offer. It was a decision she regretted now, despite the fact she had a third of a million dollars to her name, with the possibility of the same amount to come again. None of them had bargained on things going wrong on Stephanie McMahon's end of the deal.

Another thing she hadn't been prepared for was for their target to be someone of a similar age to herself, or especially someone as stunningly attractive as Becky Lynch. If they had met in a bar, Bayley wouldn't have hesitated to buy her a drink. Instead, though, the poor girl was tied to a bed, gagged and terrified. She had no idea where she was, why she was there, or what was going to happen to her.

Guilt began to weigh heavily on Bayley. Ronda had been specific and insistent about not untying Becky, but she hadn't said anything about not sitting with her or talking to her. That wouldn't hurt, would it? Anyway, she reasoned, it was the humane thing to do.

Decision made, she put her ski mask back on and headed for the bedroom door.


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of the bedroom door being unlocked came as a real surprise to Becky. She had expected hours to go by before she saw anything of her kidnappers, given that she had just been to the bathroom as well as having something to eat and drink, thanks to the input of the gentle one. If it had been left to the bloodthirsty one, she thought she would have been lucky to make it to the bathroom and back without being kicked or punched in some way.

Unfortunately the job of reapplying her bonds and gag had also been left to the bloodthirsty one. Becky had seen the pleasure in her eyes as she secured all of the knots extra tight; tighter than they had been at any point so far. The ropes cut into her already swollen and bruised wrists as well as her ankles, and the towel bit into the corners of her mouth, which felt like they had been rubbed raw by the chafing.

There had to have been a sadistic smile hidden under the woman's ski mask. Although the idea of killing the bloodthirsty one appealed to Becky on a basic level, she knew that if she did get free, she would run as far and as fast as she could away from the woman, because she really was a killer. You could see it in her eyes.

Was it her at the door? Had she come back to inflict more pain? Becky was prepared to scream and struggle as much as she could to attract the attention of the leader, if that was about to happen. The leader would stop an attack, wouldn't she?

The door opened, with a little squeak from its hinges. Becky raised her head, eyes wide with fear at what she'd imagined might be in store.

It wasn't the bloodthirsty one. Not tall enough.

With a slight moan of relief, Becky let her head fall back onto the pillow. She didn't even stop to think about what else might be happening, until the kidnapper was standing at the side of the bed, looming over her.

"Mmmph?" Becky asked, trying to demonstrate submissiveness with her eyes. There was no reason to inflict more pain on her.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the gentle one said, to Becky's relief. "The other two have gone out for a while, so I thought I'd come and sit with you. I'm prepared to take your gag off, but you can't make any sound louder than I'm talking now. Can we agree on that?"

"Ymmph," Bayley agreed, nodding enthusiastically. A period of more than a couple of minutes without that vile sock stuffed in her mouth would feel like heaven, such was the state she was in. She lifted her head so that the kidnapper could work on the knot in the towel, which was tied at the back of her head. She seemed to have a bit of difficulty undoing it because of how tight it had been left by her friend.

"She didn't need to do it this tight," the gentle one muttered to herself.

Then the knot came free, much to Becky's relief. The kidnapper used her gloved thumb and index finger to pull the sock out of her mouth, and Becky coughed instinctively.

"Thank you," Becky gasped as soon as she was able, as the kidnapper sat down on the edge of the bed. There was no chair in the room. Apart from the bed and the single night stand, all of the furniture had been removed.

"I can't untie you, though."

"I understand," Becky said. It was disappointing, but not surprising. What was this even about? She had at least picked up on one piece of information earlier. "You're Bayley, right?"

The brown eyes widened in surprise. They were gentle eyes, Becky thought. Gentle like the person behind them seemed to be. Part of her was angry that she also found them to be very attractive eyes. An ex-girlfriend of hers had been blessed with eyes that were very similar to these.

"How do you know my name?" Bayley demanded.

"Your partner. The tall one. When you were both in here earlier, after you both went out, she locked the door and I heard her say something like, 'Are you happy now, Bayley?' It was because you convinced her to give me a drink. So, you're Bayley."

Bayley sighed. "You're really not supposed to know that, but yes, I'm Bayley."

"Why am I here, Bayley? You're not going to kill me, are you? Your team, I mean. Your partner looks like she would enjoy it."

Looking down at the undoubtedly beautiful woman, Bayley had to feel sorry for her. She sounded so scared, and why wouldn't she, after what she'd been through in the last twelve hours? "No. We're not going to kill you, not unless you try and escape. We didn't kidnap you because we wanted to hurt you."

"Why did you do it then? You were paid to do it by someone else, weren't you?"

"Yes," Bayley told her, seeing no harm in it. Becky deserved to know she wasn't in physical danger. "You've been working on some new computer chip that's worth a lot of money. That makes you worth a lot of money too, to the right person."

"So there's no chance of you letting me go?" Becky asked forlornly.

"I'm afraid not. Even if I wanted to, the others would sooner kill me than agree to that. There's too much money at stake."

"Then please don't let the tall one hurt me. I can see in her eyes, she would like nothing better than to see me die a painful death. She's a sadistic killer, I can tell."

"Don't provoke her, and you'll be okay. Our, uh, boss, won't let her do anything to you. She's no pushover, but she's not cruel either."

Becky had to admit that was probably true. The leader had promised she wouldn't be hurt unless she brought it on herself, and she had kept her word. "How long am I going to be here for?"

"We're not sure," Bayley replied, before thinking the answer through. It was a mistake.

"What do you mean?" Becky quickly asked. "Someone paid you a lot of money to kidnap me, but you don't have a plan to hand me over to them? That doesn't make sense."

Bayley grimaced under her ski mask. "You're a quick, smart girl. I've already said too much about what our plans are. If you let on, we'll both be in big trouble."

Processing that, Becky figured out that something had gone wrong. There was no plan to hand her over, and the other two kidnappers had gone out to get supplies after only being there for one night. They hadn't planned on needing those supplies. The original idea must have been for the exchange to happen today. Now, for some reason, that wasn't the case.

"You're going to keep me here for a while, aren't you?"

"Yes," Bayley replied, trying to sound sure of herself.

There was an awkward silence. Kidnapper and victim was hardly the ideal dynamic for conversation. Bayley felt obliged to say something, and went with the first thing that came to mind.

"Will there be people looking for you. Boyfriend? Parents? Friends?"

"My family live back in Ireland. I have friends over here, but none that will be missing me this soon. I live alone. No girfriend at the moment."

"Girlfriend?" Bayley asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Go ahead, judge me because I'm gay. It's nothing I haven't heard before, trust me."

"No," Bayley said quickly, raising a defensive hand. "I'm not judging you, I was just surprised. I'm actually bisexual myself."

Becky managed a smile. "Then you'll understand when I say you have beautiful eyes. I don't suppose you want to take that mask off?"

In that moment, it dawned on Bayley that what she was doing wasn't a good idea at all. She was here to exchange this woman for money, not to get to know her, no matter how sexy she was. She'd mistakenly revealed that things weren't going to plan, and for a half second she'd considered taking her mask off. Telling herself that she shouldn't have even come into the bedroom, she decided to leave before she made things worse.

"I can't take my mask off. And I shouldn't have come in here and talked to you like this. The others would be furious if they knew." She stood up and picked up the sock and the towel. "I have to gag you again now. I won't do it as tight as before though."

"No, please," Becky begged desperately. "Having that sock in my mouth is so horrible, and the towel hurts me, too. I promise I won't make a sound. I'll just lie here in silence. I promise."

Bayley hesitated, then saw something out of the corner of her eye. She put the sock and the towel down on the night stand and picked up the roll of silver duct tape instead. "I do have to gag you. Like I said before, we'd both get in trouble if our boss thought I was going easy on you. She specifically told us yesterday to keep you gagged at all times. I can use this tape though. It will be more comfortable for you than before."

Dropping her head to the pillow, Becky raged at herself for asking Bayley to take her mask off. That had been pushing way too far, and now it had cost her. She did appreciate that Bayley was willing to use the tape instead, but she had no intention of thanking her kidnapper for gagging her.

Sitting back down on the bed, Bayley stretched out a length of tape from the roll. "Lift your head up, Becky. Don't make this difficult or I'll have to use the sock and the towel, and I don't want to do that."

Reluctantly, Becky raised her head and stayed still while Bayley stuck the end of the tape to her cheek. Slowly, deliberately, she wrapped it over her mouth, using her fingers to press it down and seal her lips as completely as possible.

Becky had hoped that only a strip of tape might be used, but Bayley went on to wrap it around her head three times in the same slow, deliberate manner. The tightness of the new gag surprised Becky. It was a lot more than she would have expected from duct tape.

"Try and talk," Bayley requested, with an almost guilty look in her eyes, after she had finally seperated the tape from the roll and patted down the loose end.

"Imm cammt tmmph," Becky said. To her immense frustration, although this gag wasn't painful, it was even more effective than the original one. Whatever brand of tape this was, it was incredibly tough and sticky. Her lips were completely sealed, and would not move at all.

"I'm sorry," Bayley said, touching Becky's cheek gently with a gloved hand. "Hopefully this will be over soon. I'll do my best to make sure that, uh, the tall one doesn't hurt you. One of us will be back to see you later."

Becky started pleading helplessly into the tape as Bayley stood up, but she determined herself not to give in to it. Touching a finger to the tape, she said, "Sshhh. I've done what I can to put your mind at ease, and I changed the gag when you asked me to. Now you need to be quiet, okay?"

Lowering her head back down onto the pillow, Becky turned away, refusing to look at Bayley. Tears filled her eyes as she listened to the kidnappers footsteps receeding towards the door. The door opened, then closed, then she heard the lock click into place

Once more, she was alone, bound, gagged and helpless. Only now, she knew that she would be that way for an indeterminate period of time. That was unless the bloodthirsty one decided to take matters into her own hands and kill her.

For the next several minutes, she tried again to wriggle her wrists against the ropes that held them, while trying to talk through the tape in the hope that it would loosen. It was all pointless. There was no escape from this place, or from these people.


	5. Chapter 5

Bayley got out of the van, warily looking at the group of people standing twenty yards away.

Stephanie McMahon looked back at her with an expression of slight impatience on her face. She was flanked by three muscled up lackies, who were obviously there to do anything that might vaguely represent dirty work. Stephanie certainly didn't look like the kind of woman who would be keen to mess up her perfect manicure. Even standing in a deserted, disused train yard seemed to be so far beneath her, but it was the ideal place for a deal like this to go down. All four of the McMahon entourage wore expensive business suits that risked an encounter with dust the longer they stood there.

One of the van's rear doors banged open, followed by the other. Bayley heard Becky doing her utmost to protest into her gag as she was dragged out by Charlotte.

"Shut up, bitch. Make a good impression for your new owner." Charlotte was taking so much pleasure in taunting their victim.

Ankles unbound, but wrists secured behind her back, Becky was shoved forward by Charlotte as Ronda closed the van's doors. Bayley made eye contact with Becky for a moment and had to look away out of a sense of guilt. It was obvious what the future held for her at the hands of McMahon: A long time in captivity, forced to complete her genius idea totally for the benefit of the woman who was holding her, followed almost certainly by death. McMahon wouldn't be stupid enough to let her live.

"Move!" Charlotte barked at Becky, who was plainly scared half to death of even approaching the four people who awaited her with nothing but cold expressions on their faces.

"Ronda," Stephanie finally acknowledged when the trio approached her. Bayley hung back, standing near the van.

"Stephanie. This is Becky Lynch, as requested."

Despite Becky's resistance, Charlotte forced her to walk right up to Stephanie so that they were face to face. Bayley saw the look in the rich businesswoman's eyes. She resembled a hawk looking down on a mouse that it was about to devour.

"Hello, Becky," she grinned cruelly, seeming not to notice the thick towel tied in her mouth. "You're going to make me a lot of money. At least, you'd better."

With that she nodded to one of her men, who walked over and took Charlotte's place, holding Becky's bound wrists to force her forwards. One of the others had walked over to an SUV with black tinted windows that was parked nearby. He opened one of the rear doors, ready for their prisioner to be forced inside.

"Excellent work, Ronda," Stephanie said casually. "I believe I owe you a million dollars."

Ronda just smiled deferentially. The leader of the team of kidnappers was still a long way down the pecking order compared to McMahon.

"The same account as before?" Stephanie asked, receiving a polite nod as a reply. She pulled out her phone and spent thirty seconds tapping away at the screen. She then turned the phone around for Ronda to see the display. "One million dollars. That concludes our business."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Ronda said.

That was that, Bayley saw. Stephanie turned and headed for the black luxury saloon car that was parked next to the SUV, while Charlotte and Ronda made their way back to the van. Bayley's eyes lingered on the SUV. The huge man who was now in charge of Becky had reached the open rear door with her.

Although it was pointless, Becky tried to resist again, struggling against being bundled into the vehicle. The last Bayley saw of her was when she looked back towards the van and they made eye contact. Becky's eyes were wide as saucers in fear and she screamed for help into her gag as loudly as she could. Help was never going to come.

Bayley jerked awake with a gasp and sat up on the bed. It took her a few disoriented seconds to figure out where she was and what was happening. A bad dream, she realised, taking a deep breath. She'd had a bad dream about handing Becky over to McMahon for the second million dollars. It was strange that it had been a bad dream, given that was the reason she was there, and why Becky was tied to a bed in the next room. If things had gone according to plan, a handover like the one she'd just dreamed about would have already happened by now.

"Can't we just get this over with?" she groaned to herself as she got up off the bed. Even though she had slept on top of the blanket, she had still been sweating during the bad dream. She really needed a shower. One thing she was definitely sick of was her hands sweating in the stupid gloves that Ronda insisted on being worn at all times. Admittedly, the idea of leaving no fingerprints behind made sense, but it was just another inconvenience that Bayley didn't need.

Feeling irritable to the extreme, she walked over to the bedroom door and opened it. Before she walked out into the short hallway, she heard Charlotte's voice coming from the living area, in mid conversation with Ronda.

"...a fucking waste of time. You've spent half the day making calls and you've got no concrete offers. People either don't want the stupid bitch, or they can't afford her. You should have gone along with me when I said we'd be better off killing her, dumping the body and taking the million bucks between us. Like I said, it's not our fault McMahon got her ass arrested before we made the exchange. That million is ours."

Bayley wasn't sure why she decided to linger in the doorway and listen to the conversation rather than going and joining them, but she was soon glad she did.

"Even if I thought that was a good idea," Ronda replied, "There's no way Bayley would go for it. I can't force her into killing Becky. That's not what any of us signed up for. If killing was involved, I never would have approached Bayley at all."

"Yeah, well, it's pretty damn obvious that was a mistake anyway," Charlotte said sullenly. "I knew she would end up feeling sorry for Becky. It's fucking pathetic. The minute we go out to get supplies, she's in there taking her gag off and changing it for tape to make her more comfortable. I soon put that back the way it was supposed to be. Who gives a fuck if she's comfortable anyway? Honestly, I can see Bayley becoming a liability before we're done here." There was a pause before Charlotte went on. "It makes me wonder, why don't you and I kill the pair of them and split the million between us?"

"What?" Ronda demanded, clearly shocked at the suggestion.

"You heard me. Bayley's going to end up getting us all in the shit by coming over all sympathetic to Becky. There's no room for that sort of crap on a job like this. Besides, you can't even find anyone who's willing or able to pay us close to what McMahon offered. I say fuck it, kill the pair of them and take half a million each. All we've got to do is dump the bodies somewhere, and we're already in the middle of nowhere out here."

Bayley was horrified by what she was hearing, and found herself considering making a run for the van as soon as she could get her hands on the keys.

"No," Ronda decided firmly, after another short pause. "We're not killing Becky, and we're certainly not killing Bayley. What the fuck is the matter with you? Someone will take her, even if it's for less than we were originally supposed to get. Now stop talking about it. Kill Bayley," she finished, obviously shaking her head in disgust.

But Bayley had noted the short pause before Ronda had started speaking. She had considered the idea, even if only for a brief moment. What if Charlotte kept wearing away at her and eventually talked her into it? No, Bayley decided, she wasn't going to hang around and wait for that to happen. The first chance she got, she was out of there, and if she could, she would take Becky with her. Not only did she not want their captive to be murdered in cold blood - that was too heavy a burden to have on her conscience. The dream about handing her over to McMahon had been bad enough - there was also still the chance of making a lot of money from a potential buyer, if she could find one.

* * *

Becky was startled awake by a gloved hand clamping over her mouth. "Shhh," the kidnapper whispered to her as she made a very faint moan of protest behind both the hand and her gag. "I'm not here to hurt you. I need you to stay absolutely silent. I'm getting you out of here, and we're making a run for it. Can I trust you?"

It was Bayley. If there was one of the three kidnappers that Becky was going to trust, it would be her. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but the idea of getting out of the room that she'd been tied up in for more than a day sounded good. She nodded her head as much as she could with the hand pressing down on her.

"Okay. I'm going to untie your wrists, then tie them again behind your back," Bayley whispered to her after taking her hand away. "Don't try to struggle or call out, or you'll get us both killed."

Becky nodded again, then Bayley untied her wrists from the bed as promised. She sat up, and her wrists were secured behind her back with one of the lengths of rope.

"Alright, now I'm going to untie your ankles so you can walk. We're going to go outside and take the van. You'll have to lie in the back. Don't make a sound on the way out. Ronda is asleep in the bedroom next door, and Charlotte has fallen asleep in the chair in the living room. If either of them hear us, we're dead. Understand?"

Becky nodded for a third time. She had no idea why Bayley had decided to take this course of action, but she would rather put her life in her hands than those of Charlotte and Ronda, as her partners were apparently called.

Bayley untied her ankles and the two women sneaked silently out of the bedroom, with Bayley standing close behind Becky, who didn't even try to look around at her surroundings. She could see the front door at the end of the hallway, and that was all that mattered. They reached the door and were presented with the first problem. It had to be unlocked and opened without alerting either of the sleeping women. To Becky's immense relief, Bayley managed to unlock the door with barely a sound, and it didn't squeak on its hinges as it opened. Things were going their way.

They walked outside. Bayley didn't bother risking closing the front door. By the time she fired up the van and alerted her so-called former friends as to what was happening, it would be too late for them to do anything about it.

"Now," Bayley whispered. "When I open the door, get inside and lie down. I'm going to have to jump in the front and get us out of here fast. As soon as they hear the engine, they'll know what's happening."

Becky gave her usual confirmation.

Bayley stepped ahead of her and opened the van's rear door, which squeaked slightly, doing neither of their nerves any favours. Becky climbed inside and lay down on the wooden flooring as she had been instructed.

Sighing with relief, Bayley shut the door as quietly as she could, then ran around to the front of the van. Jumping into the driver's seat, she fired up the engine and hit the gas so hard that the wheels span up on the gravel before the large vehicle actually started moving.

Inside the cabin, Charlotte heard the engine start up. It only took her a split second to process what was going on when she noticed that Bayley wasn't in the room with her. "Fucking bitch!" she raged, sprinting from the room. She noticed Becky's empty room on the way past it. "Ronda! We're being fucked!" she screamed as she raced outside. The van was already disappearing down the gravel track.

Bayley drove as fast as she could on the uneven surface, with only the van's headlights piercing the total darkness of the moonless night. Looking in the mirror, she saw Charlotte running after them in the red glow of the tail lights. Damn, the girl was fast when she got going. She was actually gaining ground. She moved like a fucking Terminator when she had to.

"Where's the damn road?" Bayley asked desperately. Then she saw it up ahead. They had made it. She turned onto the road and pressed the accelerator to the floor.

Breathless, Charlotte reached the road only seconds behind the van, but she knew the chase was over as the engine roared and it sped off. She bent over, hands on her knees, trying to get her breath back. After gasping in a few breaths, she screamed at the receding tail lights. "I'm going to kill you both! I'm going to fucking kill you!"


	6. Chapter 6

"Stop pacing around for God's sake, I'm trying to think," Ronda snapped at Charlotte. They were in the cabin's living room, minutes after Bayley had taken both Becky and the van.

"Stop pacing?" Charlotte snapped back. "I'm ready to murder someone! There's nothing to think about. We find those two pieces of shit, and we kill them both."

"Bayley can't get access to the million dollars," Ronda pointed out. "You know I've just checked that it's still in the account, and I changed the passwords just in case. We can just split the money between us and move on. We don't need to go after those two. If anything, Bayley has lumbered herself with Becky now. She has the problem of what to do with her. Even if she does manage to sell her on to someone, who cares? We have half a million dollars each anyway."

"Yeah, we have the money," Charlotte ranted, not placated by the fact at all. "But Bayley still fucked us over. And in case you hadn't thought about it, she knows who we both are." She spoke as if she was talking to an exceedingly simple child.

Ronda leapt up off the couch and got in her face, eyes burning with anger. "Talk to me like that again and see what happens."

"Alright, I'm sorry," Charlotte said, hurriedly backing down from the confrontation like the typical bully when faced with someone who was prepared to fight back. "What I said is true though," she went on as Ronda took a step back. "Bayley knows who we both are, and Becky would certainly testify against us as well. Yes, we have half a million dollars each, but we have to find them, and we have to kill them. I'm not living with the thought that the feds could show up at any minute and put us away for twenty years for kidnapping."

"Yeah, good point," Ronda admitted. "Although I don't think Bayley would run to the feds, it's something we have to consider. She might get the idea in her head about going into witness protection. That's something we just can't allow to happen. Okay, Charlotte, maybe you're right. We need to track down Bayley and Becky, and we need to kill them."

"Now we're talking the same language," Charlotte said, pleased at the prospect of some top quality violence. "How are we going to find them, though?"

"I'll put the word out, as well as a picture of Bayley. I have plenty of contacts. It would be a good idea to offer a financial reward for accurate information regarding her whereabouts. If we do that, I'm confident someone will lead us to her. And when we find Bayley, we'll likely find Becky."

"And if we don't? Find Becky, I mean."

"Then we cross that bridge when we come to it," Ronda shrugged. "If Bayley does manage to sell her on, then we're in the shit, but we can't cover off every eventuality at this point. Bayley made sure of that when she took Becky and ran."

"Fucking little bitch," Charlotte growled.

Ronda ignored the mini outburst and walked in the direction of the kitchen with her mind focused on more practical considerations. "What I'm going to do is call someone to come pick us up, but it will take them a while to get out here. I can start making calls and putting the word out while we wait. First, I'm having a beer."

Charlotte trudged after her. She didn't want beer. She didn't want to wait for people to track Bayley down. She wanted blood, plain and simple. "When we catch up to them, I'm killing Becky Lynch. I've been wanting to do that ever since we took her."

After taking two bottles of beer out of the fridge and handing one to Charlotte, Ronda used the edge of a work surface to remove the top from hers. She took a long hit, then raised an eyebrow at her partner. "You're messed up, you know that?"

"Yep. I don't give a fuck. You want Bayley and Becky dead, I'll kill them. You don't even have to get your hands dirty."

"Tempting, but no. We started this together, we're still in it together. We'll go kill them together, we'll dispose of the bodies together, then we split the million and go our separate ways."

Charlotte nodded. "Deal."

The two women bumped fists, then downed the rest of their beers. It was time to get down to business.

* * *

Having driven throughout the night, Bayley was exhausted by the time she found a dusy, run down little backwater town that looked like the kind of place she could lie low for a few days while she made a decision on what to do next. First things first, she needed to find a cheap motel to check into. It had to be the kind of place where the rates were cheap and questions weren't asked. There was nowhere else that would be a safe place to keep Becky.

Glancing into the back of the van, Bayley saw her prisoner sitting with her back resting against the side, knees tucked up under her chin in a very defensive posture. She was obviously still very scared; understandably so.

Not long after they had fled the cabin, Bayley had pulled over and got in the back in order to put a blindfold on Becky. She had realised that she needed to drive without the ski mask on to avoid attracting attention, and she hadn't been totally sure about letting her captive see her face as yet. Becky had seemed okay with the explanation, not that she had much of an option. Her wrists were still bound behind her back and the nasty towel and sock gag was still in her mouth, but she hadn't made any fuss or tried to escape during the long journey. Bayley assumed she was at least a little grateful not to have been left behind with Charlotte.

"We'll be off the road soon. I'm looking for a motel where we can hole up for a few days until I decide what to do. Please just stay quiet and sit still."

It only took her five more minutes to find the perfect place. Giving the place the name Five Star Motel had to be someone's idea of a joke. One Star Shit Hole would have been more appropriate. But for Bayley, it was perfect. Hers was only the third car in the lot when she pulled in. Looking around, she saw that the paintwork on the large sign at the roadside and on the doors to the rooms looked older than she was. One of the rooms even had a broken window, which someone had half-heartedly attended to by nailing a piece of wood across it.

"I'm going to get us a room, Becky," Bayley said, turning to look in the back once more. "I need to trust you to sit there and stay quiet, or I'm going to have to knock you out. Will you do that for me?"

"Mmm," Becky nodded, meaning it. She reasoned that Bayley had rescued her from the others, so why would she hurt her now, unless she was provoked? Her hope was that they could get into the motel room, Bayley would take her gag off and they could actually talk about the situation. All she wanted was to be freed. She was prepared not to go to the cops, if that was what it took to secure her freedom. As long as she could back to her life, see her friends again, see her family again, that was all that mattered. Bayley really did seem like a kind person, especially for a kidnapper. Hopefully she would see sense.

"Okay, I'll trust you," Bayley decided. "Don't make me regret it. Remember, I could have ran by myself and left Charlotte to kill you if I wanted you to get hurt."

"Mmmph." Becky tried to sound as trustworthy as possible.

As satisfied as she could be, Bayley used the rear view mirror to fix her messy hair into a tight side ponytail. It was all she could do to make it look something like presentable after wearing the ski mask earlier in the night. With that done, she got out of the van and locked the door. Thankfully, she heard nothing from the back of the vehicle as she walked over to the door which bore a faded, dust-streaked 'Reception' sign.

Pushing the door open, Bayley saw an overweight man who looked to be in his early twenties lounging at the desk reading a comic book. A cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth. His eyes didn't leave the page he was reading as she approached. Apparently a greeting was out of the question. That was just fine with Bayley, who wanted as little conversation as possible.

"I need a room, please. I'll be here a few nights, not sure exactly how many. I'll pay for three for now, if that's okay?"

"Seventy five a night," came the uninterested reply, along with a flicker of eye contact.

Bayley was tempted to ask if he was serious, but she didn't want to give him any reason to remember her. She had enough cash on her to afford the required amount anyway. "I parked down at the far end of the lot. Can I have the last room along, please?" she asked as she counted out the bills.

"Whatever you want." The guy stretched up to take a key off a rack which was marked with room numbers. The occupancy rate was predictably pathetic, Bayley saw. He dropped the key on the desk, then quickly counted through the bills that Bayley handed him. "Thanks. Anything else?"

"No, thank you," Bayley replied, wondering what else he could possibly offer the human race. She picked up the key and left as quickly as she could without making a show of it.

The next task was to get Becky out of the van and into the hotel room without anyone seeing anything suspicious - like a bound, gagged and blindfolded woman for example. At least there was the fact that no one seemed to frequent this area of town if they could at all help it. She'd only seen one car drive past on the road since she'd parked the van. Another bonus was that Mr Attentive in the office was hardly likely to be coming to see what she was doing.

With a plan in mind, albeit not a world-beater, Bayley walked up to the last door in the row, just yards in front of the van's rear doors. Much like everything else at the motel, the metal numbers fixed to the door were heavily faded, not that Bayley cared in the least. All that mattered was that they matched the number on the cheap wooden key ring.

After unlocking the door and leaving it slightly ajar, Bayley took off her jacket, then opened the doors on the back of the van. She climbed inside, then pulled the doors almost closed behind her. "Becky," she said quietly, crouching down beside the her. "We're going to go into the motel room now. When we're in there, I'll take off your blindfold and your gag. I've got no food here yet, but there will obviously be water, so you can have a drink. I'm going to put my jacket around you, covering your head a bit so people can't see you. Don't be scared. There are only a few paces from the back of the van to the motel room. I'll point you in the right direction, you just move quickly. Unless you do something to attract attention, you'll be perfectly safe. Is that all okay?"

The voice was gentle as always. Reassuring. Even kind. Becky believed what she was being told. The prospect of getting the vile and painful gag out of her mouth alone was more than worth cooperating. She nodded her acknowledgement of the instructions.

Bayley coaxed Becky over to the doors, then got out to look around for anyone who might see what was going on. The coast was clear. She draped her jacket over the back of Becky's head, then told her to walk.

As ordered, Becky moved quickly in the direction she was guided by Bayley. She head a door's hinges squeak, then sensed that she was in the motel room.

"Over here," Bayley said, continuing to guide her. "There's a bed right in front of you. Lie down while I lock the van up."

Awkwardly, Becky lowered herself on to the bed and lay down on her side, facing in the direction of the door. Right now, she simply wanted to do whatever Bayley said. Within moments, she heard the soft footsteps return and the motel room's door closed with a dull thump.

Bayley breathed a sigh of relief. The difficult part was over. A thick curtain at the window was the only saving grace of the room, which was otherwise tragically furnished with a double bed that had long since seen better days, a single chair that was in even worse condition, and dark red carpet that was barely worthy of the description. That thick curtain was crucial though, making this a relatively safe place to keep Becky while she decided what to do with her.

"Mmmmmph," Becky mumbled into her gag as a reminder that she'd been promised its removal.

"Yeah, I'm going to take it off now," Bayley said, walking over to the bed and sitting down on the edge. "And I'll take off your blindfold, too. I don't have my mask on, so you'll see what I look like. Hopefully that tells you that you can trust me."

Becky was surprised by how much she wanted to see the face behind that gentle voice and those beautiful eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Becky closed her eyes when she felt Bayley working on untying her blindfold, in the expectation that the light would hurt her eyes. Feeling the towel removed, she slowly opened her eyes, pleasantly surprised to find that the room actually wasn't well lit. The thick curtain that was drawn across the window had taken care of that. It took her a second or two to focus on the woman sitting on the bed beside her. Becky made a small, involuntary gasp of surprise into her gag.

 _This_ was Bayley? One of her kidnappers? She could hardly believe it. Looking back at her, with a timid half-smile on her face, was possibly the cutest woman she had ever seen. Those gorgeous eyes had only told a minuscule part of the story. Even the way she wore her hair in a side ponytail was adorable. She looked more like the kind of person who would randomly hug you in the street, rather than kidnap you.

The two women just looked at each other for a moment. Becky found herself wondering if this was Stockholm Syndrome. Her limited knowledge of the term told her that it had something to do with kidnap victims falling in love with their captors. Was that what was happening here? Surely not. Not after only a couple of days, and having only just set eyes on Bayley for the first time. No, she wasn't falling for her as such, but she couldn't help finding her attractive either.

"I'll take your gag off now, if you'll promise not to talk any louder than this," Bayley said.

Becky nodded her agreement. The corners of her mouth hurt so much because of the towel rubbing against them, and she'd had more than enough of the detergent taste from the sock. Worst of all was the fact she couldn't close her mouth or swallow properly, which made her drool everywhere. It was one of the most pathetic feelings to experience.

Bayley leaned over and worked on the knot behind Becky's head. As before, Charlotte had tied it as tight as she could manage; way more than was necessary to keep the gag in place. It had been as much about inflicting discomfort and pain on Becky as keeping her quiet. There was something seriously wrong with that woman, Bayley thought, conscious of the fact that she was now number one on Charlotte's hit list. Should they ever cross paths again, she would be in serious trouble.

Untying the towel took several attempts, but Bayley was eventually able to succeed. She then pulled it out of Becky's mouth, being as gentle as she could. The sock was still stuffed in there, though. Grimacing, for the first time, Bayley missed the long since discarded latex gloves that had annoyed her so much. She pulled the saliva-soaked sock out of Becky's mouth and tossed it across the room with a groan of disgust, then wiped her hand on the bed cover. She would have to go wash it once she was totally sure Becky was settled in.

With a groan of her own, Becky used the newfound freedom to move her mouth around as much as possible, trying to ease the pain in her cheeks. "Could I have a drink?" she croaked out, throat raw from lack of moisture.

"Okay," Bayley said cautiously. "I'll get you a cup of water, but you have to lie here quietly, and lie still. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you make me."

"I won't make you," Becky promised.

Willing to trust her, Bayley got up and picked up one of the two cups that had been left on one of the nightstands for guests. She noticed that one of them was chipped, a fact which didn't surprise her at all. She walked into the bathroom, which, remarkably, was clean, and filled the cup up with water from the sink after quickly washing her hands.

"Thank you," Becky croaked when Bayley walked back into the room.

"Okay, sit up so you can drink."

Becky did as instructed as Bayley sat back down on the bed beside her once more. She then held the cup for her to drink, being careful not to tip it too steeply and spill any. Becky drank the whole cup of water in one hit.

"Thank you," she repeated when she was done. The water had helped to take the edge off the nasty taste that the sock had left in her mouth. "Please don't put that sock in my mouth again, Bayley. It's so horrible, and it makes it hard to breath."

"I can see the towel hurts you, too," Bayley said softly, looking at the red marks at the corners of her mouth.

"It really did, with how tight that tall woman insisted on tying it."

"That was Charlotte," Bayley revealed. "She's the one who's going to be coming after us now, intent on killing us both. But no, to answer what you said, I won't put that in your mouth again. I will have to gag you at times, if I have to leave the room for example, but I'll use this." She reached over to the jacket which had been left on the bed and pulled the roll of duct tape that had been in Becky's room at the cabin out of her pocket. She'd had the foresight to grab it before waking her captive up when they had made their escape.

Becky's heart sank at that. She'd been hoping to talk Bayley into letting her go. That appeared to be very unlikely, at least for the time being. "You're not going to let me go, then?"

"Honestly? I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. All I know is I couldn't leave you there to suffer the kind of painful death Charlotte would have inflicted on you. I didn't get into this to see anyone killed."

"Why did you get into it?" Becky quickly asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"I needed money," Bayley replied. Her tone clearly conveyed the message that she didn't want to say anything more, and Becky certainly wasn't going to push her on it.

"I don't suppose you'll be willing to untie my hands? This rope keeps rubbing on me. My wrists feel so sore."

Bayley considered that. She didn't want Becky to be in too much pain, but she was mindful not to go too far in the other direction and enable her to escape, at least not until she had made a decision. There was still the possibility of someone paying a significant amount of money for her, if she could find a buyer, and if she could bring herself to actually hand her over to that buyer. That was becoming a bigger problem that she had ever expected. Why did the inventor they had kidnapped have to be such a stunningly attractive, and to judge by their limited exchanges so far, a seemingly genuinely nice woman? Things would have been so much simpler if she wasn't either of those things.

"I'll untie you," she decided, "But I'm going to have to tape your wrists to the bed. I need to go out to get supplies. When I do, I'll buy you something to wear with long sleeves so your skin is covered up. It's a shame I didn't think to grab your jacket at the cabin."

"I'd be too hot with a jacket on all day," Becky pointed out. "But I would appreciate something to protect my wrists. They really do hurt so much."

"Turn around," Bayley ordered, voice still gentle. "I'll untie you and take a look."

Becky did as she was told. When Bayley untied and unwound the rope, she saw why Becky was in pain. Her skin had been rubbed raw to the point of bleeding. It had to be a lot more painful than Becky had let on, perhaps in fear of retribution of some kind. She was a kidnap victim after all. Bayley had to try and see things from her victim's point of view. It was one thing to be told you were going to be safe, it was another to believe it was true when all you wanted was to be set free.

"Oh God," Becky breathed when she brought her hands around in front of her and saw the state of her wrists for herself.

"Don't worry," Bayley said, surprised by how much she wanted to take care of her. "I'll stop at a pharmacy when I go out, and I'll pick up some bandages and some cream to clean you up with. We also need food. I'm sure you're as hungry as I am."

"I'm starving," Becky admitted. "All I've had since you snatched me is a few chocolate bars. I also need to use the bathroom. Can I please go without you tying me up?"

Since you snatched me. Those words made Bayley feel guilty, but she forced herself to ignore it. "You can. But you'll have to go with the door open so I can see you. Like I said before, I'm trusting you, but I will hurt you if you give me a reason."

"I just need to pee, Bayley," Becky said earnestly. "I'm not going to attack you or do something dumb. I know you could have left me in that cabin, and if you had I'd probably have been killed real soon. All I want is to go back to my life, to my friends, and to go back to Ireland and see my family." Saying the words out loud brought tears to Becky's eyes and they began to trickle down her cheeks. "I didn't ask for any of this. I was just living my life, doing my job. I was on the brink of having it made with the new chip I was working on, then the three of you showed up. Just let me go, Bayley, please."

Again, the plea made Bayley feel guilty for what she had been a part of doing to this poor woman. Yes, she needed money for a good and important reason, but was ruining this Becky's life and possibly getting her killed the way to get it? Or was she making a mistake by having this conversation at all, letting Becky get in her head? That was definitely what Ronda would have told her, and Ronda was a very smart woman. The whole situation was a real mess. Feeling attracted to Becky wasn't making it any better, either. From somewhere, she found some determination. She had to make her own decision, in her own time, and she couldn't allow Becky's pleading to influence her. There was too much at stake.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," she said, as firmly as she could. "You can go to the bathroom now, but no more of that begging. I don't want to hear it."

"Okay," Becky mumbled. She walked into the bathroom, with Bayley following close behind. Sitting on the toilet, she felt embarrassed by the fact that Bayley had to watch her. There had been something in her captor's eyes when she had asked to be let go. She had considered it for a second, but then her expression had hardened. Whatever the reason was that Bayley needed money, it was very important to her. Becky had an inkling that at least part of her regretted the kidnapping, but now couldn't see a way out other than following through with the original plan of selling her on to someone else. That was something to consider. What if there was another way out that still involved Bayley getting money? Was there any such way? It would help if she knew what the money was for. She decided to broach the subject again later, not wanting to risk making Bayley angry.

After she had flushed and washed up at the sink - the first time she'd been allowed to do that since the abduction - Bayley lead her back into the main room.

"Back on the bed, please. I'm going to go out for supplies now. I'll bring back plenty of food and the other stuff I mentioned. We can talk more when I get back."

Becky sat back down on the bed, then lay down with her head on one of the pillows, sure that she knew what was coming. "You're going to tie me up again?"

"I have to. But I won't use the rope. Put your wrist against the bar, please."

As requested, Becky put her right wrist up against one of the bars that made up the bed's framework. She was glad in a way that the cheap bed actually had metal framework, otherwise Bayley would probably have tied her to the chair. That would have been a lot more uncomfortable than lying on the bed. Bayley went to work with the duct tape, wrapping it around her wrist and the metal bar several times. It wasn't as painful as rope, but it was just as secure.

"What if I figured out a way for you to get money if you let me go?" Becky asked as the tape was applied to her other wrist.

"We'll talk later, Becky. I need to think. There are so many things going on in my head right now. For now, I need you to lie here and be quiet. I'll try not to be long." Bayley didn't wait for a reply before sticking the end of the tape to Becky's cheek and pulling it tight over her mouth. She wrapped the roll around her head three times, considering that to be about as effective a gag as she was going to achieve with duct tape. The gap between Becky's nose and the bottom of her chin was completely covered. As she tore off the roll and set it aside, she found her eyes locked with Becky's. They were wide. She was scared. She was vulnerable. She was beautiful. There was no denying any of those facts.

"Mmmmph," Becky mumbled as she tested the tightness of the tape, closing her eyes in defeat as she did so.

Forcing herself to ignore the sudden urge to kiss Becky, Bayley used two fingers to smooth the tape down over her mouth, sealing it as tightly as possible. "I'm sorry," she said softly, genuinely. "But I had to do that. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Becky watched Bayley leave the room and calmly close the door behind her, hoping that she kept to her word and came back soon to let her out of her fresh bonds. She had been gagged with this tape once before and knew what to expect this time. If she tried to talk or make any sounds, breathing would soon become difficult. Trying to move her lips to loosen the adhesive wouldn't work. Bayley had taken care of that by wrapping it around her head so many times that it was simply too tight.

Shifting her position, she looked at the tape around her right wrist. Trying to move it confirmed her suspicions; There was no way she was going to struggle out of the situation she was in. Her ankles had been left unbound, but that was of no use to her, either. There was nothing she could reach that might be of assistance.

Growling in frustration, she let her head fall to the pillow. She couldn't get free. The location had changed, in not having Charlotte or the other woman whose name she had forgotten around anymore, her circumstances had changed, but she was still bound to a bed, and gagged. How long was this going to go on for? She lay there on the verge of tears for several minutes, consciously breathing in long, deep breaths through her nose. Getting enough air wasn't particularly easy with her mouth so thoroughly taped.

"Mmmmmpph," she moaned, only frustrating herself further with how weak it sounded. Hovering on the edge of despair, she told herself no, she wasn't going to give in. She was going to use this time to think about what to say to Bayley when she returned.

Finding out what she needed the money for, and how much she needed were the top priorities. Was there a real possibility that she might buy her own freedom? She had to admit it was unlikely because she didn't have all that much money herself. She had an idea that was worth a fortune, but that fortune was some way from becoming a reality. Bayley was hardly going to be stupid enough to let her go on a promise of a future payment. That was ridiculous.

So, what then? Would she have to rely on Bayley to make the 'right' decision? And what if she didn't? What if she was out there now on her supply run making calls to people who might want her for the same reasons as whoever had originally ordered her abduction? That thought was too terrifying to dwell on.

One thing that did keep coming back to her was how Bayley's eyes had lingered on her own after she had applied the tape to her mouth. There had been genuine sympathy there, but also maybe something more. Or was she imagining it? Could the insane attraction that she seemed to developing to her kidnapper really be mutual? Could a kidnapper fall for a victim? Was that the way to get out of this alive?

Becky made a decision. When Bayley came back, she would wait for the right time and find a way to tell her that she felt an attraction for her. The reaction she got would tell her a lot about what her future was going to hold.


	8. Chapter 8

The supply run had taken longer than Bayley had expected it to. Getting everything she needed had meant going to several different crappy stores in the run down backwater little town, and she'd also taken some time to use the cheap burner phone she'd purchased to make a few calls. Putting the word out that she had Becky in captivity and was willing to listen to offers was easier said than done, given that she had to try and avoid people who might figuratively go running straight to Ronda with the news. Again, she had found herself wondering if letting Becky go might actually be a better idea, but she really couldn't. She needed the money for too important a reason to simply give up on it just like that. Where else was she going to get her hands on a million dollars? Nowhere, that was the simple answer. Now she had to wait and hope that someone would bite, while also trying her best not to get caught with a hostage in a motel room, or having Charlotte and Ronda track her down and kill her. On the list of shitty situations to be in, this had to be right at the top.

At least Becky hadn't managed to escape or attract anyone's attention, she saw as she walked back into the motel room, struggling with the bags of supplies and a large pizza box. That was the first piece of good news in a long time. Having a compliant hostage, and a safe place to keep her definitely made things a lot easier than if the opposites were true.

"Sorry I took so long," she said as she carefully set the supplies down on the bed, making sure not to drop the pizza. "I had to go to a few places, then I had to wait for them to cook the pizza. I don't know what you like, so I just had to hope you'll like the same as me. We've got ham, pepperoni and onion."

Becky liked the sound of the pizza, but she liked the idea of being untied from the bed and having the gag taken off her mouth a lot more. "Gmmmph," she growled, making a point of straining her wrists against their bonds to get her point across. She figured that was the least she deserved for lying there and being quiet while Bayley was out.

Bayley studied her captive for second. Becky was glaring at her, nostrils flaring as she struggled to breathe well enough with the tape covering her mouth. "You don't have to glare at me like that," she said, voice typically gentle. "I'm going to take the tape off in a second, and I bought something so I don't have to keep tying you up like that."

Reaching into one of the plastic bags, she pulled out two pairs of rather cheap looking metal handcuffs. Cheap or not, they would do the job they were intended for. Pleasingly, Becky made no attempt to resist as she untaped one of her wrists from where it was secured to the bed's frame, only to quickly reattach it with one of the pairs of handcuffs. The restraint was even more secure than before, but also slightly more comfortable for Becky. Moving on, Bayley untaped Becky's other wrist.

"I'll leave you with one hand free for now, so you can eat your half of the pizza. Don't try and hit me or struggle with the handcuffs and we won't have a problem, okay?"

Becky nodded, still determined not to provoke Bayley, in the hope that her captor would come around to the idea of letting her go, even though it seemed highly unlikely at the moment.

"Okay, you can take your gag off. No noise louder than I'm talking, like I said before. I'll share out the pizza and sort out the drinks."

While Becky carefully unwrapped the tape from around her head, doing her best to avoid pain by pulling out as few hairs as possible, Bayley tore the lid off the pizza box and placed half of the slices onto it. Next, she produced a bottle of cola and poured a serving into each of the two cups that had been provided with the motel room.

Pulling the last of the tape slowly off her mouth so as not to hurt her lips, Becky groaned in disgust. "That tape tastes nasty, and it makes it hard to breathe."

Bayley gave her a guilt-tinged grimace. "Sorry, but I had to do something to make sure you were quiet while I was out. You asked me not to put the sock in your mouth again."

"No, please don't do that," Becky said quickly. "You really don't have to do anything to keep me quiet. I'm not going to shout or do anything."

"Here, eat your pizza," Bayley said, deliberately not responding to what Becky had said as she handed her the lid of the pizza box. She then slid the night stand closer to the bed and put one of the cups of cola on it. "As long as you don't make me change my mind, you can spend the rest of the evening like this."

It had been so long since Becky had a filling meal. Although the pizza was only a cheap one, she attacked it with gusto. The two women ate in silence until the pizza was all gone. Becky spent the time second-guessing herself over the idea of telling Bayley that she found her attractive. Was it really a good idea? Would it freak her out and make things worse? Or might something actually develop between them? Surely that was beyond the realms of possibility in this situation, she reasoned.

Meanwhile, Bayley found herself feeling guilty again as she ate. She kept thinking that Becky had done nothing to ask for any of this. She was being held against her will, and was possibly going to be sold on like a used car or something. It really was wrong. This was a person, with feelings, with family, with friends, with a life of her own. She was also beautiful. That was something else that Bayley couldn't get away from. The more time she spent with Becky, the more she felt attracted to her. It was totally crazy for her to feel that way about her captive, but she couldn't help it.

"Thank you, Bayley," Becky said timidly when she finished off the last of her food.

"You're welcome," Bayley replied, unsure what else she could have said.

Becky summoned up all the courage she could find, then asked one of the questions she'd been considering while Bayley had been out on the supply run. "You seem like a nice girl, Bayley. You don't seem like a kidnapper. The other two, maybe, but not you. You said you needed the money. What did you need it for?"

Bayley was surprised by how much she wanted to talk about the problem. Just sharing it with someone felt like it would lighten the load a lot. "My dad's business is in big trouble," she revealed. "The economy collapsing has really hit him hard, and he's staring bankruptcy in the face, despite the fact that I've been giving him as much money as I could for the past few years."

"Money from criminal activities," Becky guessed, trying not to sound judgmental.

"Yes," Bayley admitted sheepishly. "Believe me, I never wanted to get involved in crime. There was literally nothing else I could do to get money, though. It turned out that I'm a very good thief. I guess no one suspects me because of how I look, or something. Anyway, Ronda and I worked a job together and she must have liked what she saw, seeing as she offered me the chance to take part in this, uh..."

"Kidnapping," Becky finished for her, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. "Bayley, do you actually realise how bad this idea is from your point of view? Even if you had managed to get the money for me, even if you managed to do that now, it wouldn't be any good to you. Do you really think you can just give your dad a million bucks and he'll just take it at face value? How would he even possibly account for that amount of money suddenly appearing in his business anyway? You'd both end up inside faster than I can click my fingers. My God," she added, shaking her head in disbelief. " _That's_ why my life has been ruined? For a plan as crazy as that?"

"I didn't know what else to do," Bayley hissed at her, still mindful not to shout and possibly attract attention to the room. "If my dad's business goes under, my parents lose their house along with it. Do you think I'm going to see them end up on the streets and do nothing to help? Maybe you're right, maybe my idea was stupid, or maybe you're wrong. Obviously I wasn't just going to show up one day and give him a million dollars. I'm not a total idiot. I was going to keep giving him smaller amounts of money to keep the business going, until hopefully the economy picked up and he could stand on his own two feet again, leaving me with the rest of the money."

Becky was about to go on pointing out what she saw as the obvious flaws in the plan, but she stopped herself when she noticed the downcast look on Bayley's face. Head bowed slightly, she looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Becky would have been lying to herself if she tried to claim that she didn't find her to be the cutest girl she had ever set eyes on at that moment.

Bayley looked up and their eyes met for a second. Guilt was really weighing heavily on Bayley, even more so now that she realised she had been a fool to think this was a viable solution to her family's problems. "I'm sorry, Becky," she mumbled. "I ruined your life, and now I don't know what I'm going to do. I've probably ruined my own life as well. I don't know if I can let you go. Even if I do, Ronda and Charlotte are out there looking for us. They'll be coming for me first and foremost, but I can't see them risking leaving you alive either. You might even be safer here with me at the moment." She gulped, trying to hold back tears. "I'm way out of my depth, and I don't know what to do."

"Don't cry," Becky said, surprising herself with her genuine sympathy. "Crying won't make it any better. Come here, lie next to me. Talk to me about something else, because I don't like seeing you upset."

Bayley did as she'd been asked, laying her head down on the pillow next to Becky. "What do you mean, you don't like seeing me upset?"

"Exactly what I said. You might think this is crazy, hell, it probably is, but every time I look at you, I can't help myself thinking about how cute you are. Seeing how upset you looked just then really got to me."

Bayley felt herself blushing as she smiled. "That is crazy, but thank you. I don't deserve your sympathy, Becky, not after what I've done to you."

"Shhh," Becky whispered. "Let's just talk, Bayley. Tell me some more about yourself."

* * *

Bayley opened her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep for, but it didn't feel like it had been long. She was still lying on the bed beside Becky, who was sleeping. It was difficult to estimate how long they had spent talking to each other earlier in the day. Many hours, that was for sure. They had gotten to know a lot more about each other, which had only left Bayley even more conflicted than she had been previously.

A large part of her wanted to let Becky go and hope that she could go back to her life without Ronda or Charlotte showing up and either kidnapping her again, or killing her. To counter that, there was the fact that she still couldn't totally get away from the idea of selling Becky to raise money to help her father's business. There was also a third problem to deal with now, which was the fact that she was undeniably attracted to the Irish woman. It was quite possible that the feeling was mutual, too. What a mess, she thought.

For a minute or so, Bayley just lay there looking at the sleeping Becky. She was lying with both of her wrists passed through the bed's framework and handcuffed together; the most comfortable way she could lie while also being secure enough that Bayley didn't have to worry about her escaping. There was also a single layer of duct tape over her mouth, wrapped around her head to make an effective but hopefully not too unpleasant gag. Bayley had wavered on the decision to apply the tape, but she just hadn't been able to trust Becky quite enough not to suddenly start screaming or shouting in the night. She did have the feeling that trust would come, in time.

For her part, Becky hadn't objected to the tape being put over her mouth, although Bayley had seen the disappointment in her eyes. She had clearly thought they might have been beyond that. Now she was sleeping soundly, which made Bayley feel a little better about it. Damn, she's beautiful, she thought, studying the woman beside her.

"I'm sorry, Becky," she breathed, barely audible. "I really want to let you go, but I don't want you to leave me."

* * *

Pins and needles were the first thing Becky noticed when she woke up. Her head had been resting on her left arm, thanks to how Bayley had secured her with the handcuffs. Shifting her position rectified that problem. It was harder to do something about the nasty adhesive taste in her mouth from the tape that was tightly sealing her lips. She had hoped that Bayley wouldn't feel the need to gag her again, and she had seen indecision in her eyes at the time. Sadly, the decision had ultimately gone the wrong way, from Becky's point of view. To further build trust, she had decided to remain silent the whole night and not struggle to get the tape off - a feat that might have been possible since Bayley had only wrapped it around her head once this time. Not getting the tape off now was hopefully worth it for the long term gain of never having to experience it again.

Looking at the sleeping woman beside her, Becky felt her heart aching. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it made no sense, but there was no getting around the fact that she was falling for Bayley. Sharing their life stories had cemented that feeling. She had gotten the impression that Bayley was starting to feel the same way, too. Had her mouth not been taped, she would have leaned over and kissed Bayley in that moment. A soft kiss on those gorgeous lips to wake her up, then see what happened from there.

Becky wondered what response she might get if she told Bayley that she wanted to go back to her old life, but she wanted her to come with her. Maybe they could come up with some story about Charlotte and Ronda and go to the police together for protection? Did that make any kind of sense? Was the whole thing total insanity? Could love really blossom between them in the most unlikely of circumstances? She didn't have answers to any of those questions, but she decided that as soon as she was able to in the morning, she would kiss Bayley. How she reacted to that kiss would tell her a lot. If all went well, this could well be the last night she spent in captivity. That possibility was more than worth any risk that might be associated with the kiss.


	9. Chapter 9

Checking the time on the cheap burner phone she had bought the day before, Bayley was surprised by how long long she'd managed to sleep. She was also surprised that Becky hadn't woken her. With that thought, panic gripped her stomach. Had she somehow managed to escape during the night?

Quickly, Bayley rolled over and saw that, thankfully, Becky was still lying there beside her. Handcuffed, taped, beautiful, just as she had been when Bayley had found herself lying there, studying her during the night. Only now, Becky was also awake, looking back at her with those incredibly sexy eyes, which she used to gesture to down at the tape, adding a small moan of encouragement.

"Okay," Bayley said softly. "You've been quiet all night, so I guess I really can trust you. No more tape unless you give me a reason to use it."

Relief washed over Becky when she heard that. As she had calculated, cooperating with Bayley by staying quiet all night had been worth it. She was still intent on kissing her, but before she could do that, there was something even more urgent to do. "I need to go to the bathroom," she announced as soon as her lips were freed from the tape.

"Alright," Bayley agreed. "I'm going to trust you, Becky. I'll let you go without me watching you. Don't make me regret it."

"I won't," Becky promised her, meaning it.

Bayley unlocked both ends of the handcuffs that had been securing Becky's wrists either side of the metal bar, then gestured towards the bathroom with her head.

"Thank you," Becky said, rubbing her sore wrists as she got off the bed.

A few minutes later, she was able to get some satisfaction from washing her hands and face with cold water at the bathroom sink before walking back out to talk to Bayley. She hadn't wanted to take too long and push whatever amount of trust she had built up with her captor.

"Better?" Bayley asked, looking up at her from her sitting position on the bed with a smile that made parts of Becky tingle.

"Yes. I suppose a shower is out of the question? I haven't been able to wash in days and I feel disgusting."

"Maybe later," Bayley replied. "I've got to go out and get us something for breakfast first. Help yourself to some water or cola."

"I've been thinking, Bayley," Becky said as she poured herself a cup of water. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about where we might go from here."

"And?" Bayley asked, after watching the redhead down the entire cup in one hit.

Sitting down next to Bayley, Becky tried summon all the courage she had. The moment felt right, and she couldn't wait forever, not if she wanted things to work out how she hoped they would. "And I don't just want you to let me go," she said, looking right into Bayley's eyes. "I don't want Charlotte and Ronda to find me, but more importantly, I don't want to leave you. I want to stay with you."

When it came, the kiss took Bayley totally by surprise. Although she had thought during the night that she didn't want Becky to leave her, the last thing she had expected was for Becky to be so forward in conveying that she felt the same way.

As Becky kissed her for the second time, more passionately than before, a little voice in Bayley's head warned her that this might all be a trick of some kind, perhaps to lull her into a false sense of security. Was that Becky's plan? Try and convince her that everything was going just the way she wanted, then attack when her guard was down? It was definitely possible. This could be the beginning of an escape attempt. Even if it wasn't, Bayley had to ask herself if she was sure of her decision to give up all hope of selling Becky on, and with it give up helping her father with his dire financial problems.

She didn't know what to do. That fact made her panic even more. She had to think it all through. That was the only way to make the right decision. Becky couldn't be allowed to force the issue like this, as nice as the kiss felt. "Becky, stop," she ordered, trying to push the Irish woman away.

"No. Kiss me, Bayley," Becky breathed. "I know you want it too."

Bayley pushed her away again, more forcefully this time. "I don't know what I want. I need time to think. I can't make the wrong decision on this. My entire life is at stake."

"Mine is as well," Becky started to say, but she was cut off.

"Shut up!" Bayley order her, angry now. "You're not letting me think. I need to get out of here and decide what I want to do."

"No. Don't go, Bayley," Becky pleaded, wanting them to talk about the situation and their feelings. Pushing at that moment was a mistake.

"I said shut up!" Bayley nearly shouted at her, then grabbed hold of her and shoved her down on the bed before she could react and resist.

"What are you doing?" Becky cried out, suddenly panicked herself as Bayley sat on her stomach, pinning her down.

Bayley forced herself not to respond. She'd made a decision on what she was going to do, right now at least. She snatched up the pair of handcuffs that she'd used during the night and snapped one end onto Becky's right wrist.

"Please, don't," Becky begged, but it was pointless. Her attempts to resist were futile as Bayley was stronger than her, and soon had two pairs of handcuffs on her, securing both of her wrists to the bed. By that point, she knew that she had pushed way too hard, much too soon and she had made Bayley panic. That was the last thing a kidnap victim ought to do to their captor. Silently raging at herself, she wondered how she could have she been so stupid?

"Bayley, I'm sorry," she tried, hoping it would calm her down. It didn't.

Bayley was determined not to listen. She'd made the decision to get out of the hotel room and give herself some time to think, and she wasn't going to change her mind. Despite Becky's protests, she picked up the roll of duct tape and quickly wrapped it several times around her head to gag her. It was regrettable, but it was necessary. "Don't look at me like that," she almost pleaded after she was finished. Becky looked like she had been betrayed. "I'm not saying I'm not going to decide I want to be with you, Becky. I just need to think it all through, and I can't do that in the same room as you. I'll be back soon with some breakfast and a decision on what I'm going to do. Lie here and stay quiet."

Watching Bayley snatch up the keys to the van and leave the room, Becky roared in frustration into the tape, struggling against the handcuffs. It was no use. She was helpless yet again, and this time she had to admit it was her fault, partially at least. Had she just blown any chance there might have been of Bayley letting her go, or of them staying together and maybe seeing if something else might develop between them?

Outside, Bayley jumped into the van and drove into the centre of the small town. Her anger, both with Becky and with herself, made her drive more aggressively than she should have done while trying to maintain a low profile. She got lucky in that she didn't encounter a police officer with nothing better to do than pull someone over for doing a few miles per hour over the speed limit.

Parking in a half-empty lot at a diner that advertised takeout food, she told herself to calm down. Becky's kiss had really rattled her, but this wasn't a time or a situation where she could afford to be rattled. One mistake and she could so easily end up in jail or dead. She had to calm down and consider the options she had available to her, and their consequences.

Selling Becky on certainly seemed to be very unlikely at this point. No one she had spoken to the previous day had called back to express any firm interest in taking her, which exhausted the few contacts she felt she could rely on not to call Ronda straight away and let her know what was going on. The plan to raise money to help her father had failed when Stephanie McMahon had gotten herself arrested, she had to face up to that. There would be no million dollars.

That left her with a woman she had kidnapped, who was now handcuffed to a bed in a motel room. Killing her definitely wasn't an option. She was a thief, not a murderer. That was a boundary she wouldn't cross. So, what to do about Becky? "I've got to let her go," she mumbled to herself. But then what? Would Becky run to the cops the first chance she got? It would be the best idea, from Becky's point of view, knowing that Ronda and Charlotte were out there, wanting to track them both down and kill them.

But Becky had kissed her. "She said she didn't want to leave me," Bayley muttered. Had Becky meant what she'd said? Had the kiss been for real? Or had it just been an attempt to get free?

Taking a minute to think it all through, Bayley realised just how badly she wanted to trust Becky. She wanted the kiss to have been real. She wanted them to try and make a relationship work, despite how far fetched the idea seemed to be, given the circumstances. It wasn't as simple as that, though. The financial problems with her father's business would still be there, and even worse, Ronda and Charlotte would still be out there trying to track them down. That was the biggest problem they had to somehow deal with, or escape from.

"Escape from?" she asked herself, wondering why she'd thought of it in those terms. Was that really the only option left? Leaving everything behind and fleeing the country to start a new life? Now that she thought about it, it really did seem that running was the only viable option. It would mean leaving her parents and their problems behind, but that would be the case if she was arrested or killed anyway.

Okay, she decided, as hard as it would be, running seemed like it was the way she had to go, but would Becky really go with her? Bayley really wanted to think that she would, that they both had genuine feelings for each other, but was that the case? And would Becky be willing to leave her life and her multi-million dollar invention behind? Again, it was likely to be the only option. Ronda and especially Charlotte would stop at nothing to kill her, so returning to her old life wasn't an option for Becky, either.

Hoping that Becky was using the time alone in the room to do some thinking herself, and hoping that handcuffing and gagging her again wouldn't have scared her off the idea of them being together, Bayley decided to grab some breakfast and head back to the motel. She got out of the van and walked across the parking lot into the diner. That was where her luck ran out.

As she ordered two meals to go, she paid no attention to the man in a black leather jacket sitting in a cubicle by himself, eating a breakfast. However, the man didn't fail to pay attention to her. Being as discrete as possible, he took out his phone and loaded up a picture that had been sent to him the previous day. The cute dark haired woman in the picture sure looked like the woman who had just walked into the diner and was now standing at the counter.

He put his phone away and carried on eating his breakfast, glad that he was sitting facing the counter so that he could watch the woman without seeming to be paying any particular attention to her at all. As she talked to the woman who was serving her, she turned slightly, giving him a better look at her face. It was the same woman. He was sure of it. What a result. He'd be able to claim the reward Ronda Rousey had offered for information on the location of the woman, Bayley Martinez, he remembered, and he hadn't even been out there trying to track her down at the time. That was well worth a smile.

When Bayley walked out, carrying two boxed up meals in a large plastic carrier bag, the man got up and followed her, leaving enough money on the table to more than cover his half-eaten meal. Out in the parking lot, he got into his car and watched Bayley climb into a white van, which also matched the description he'd been given. If he'd had any doubts about his identification of the woman Ronda was trying to track down, they were gone now. As he pulled out of the lot, following the van from a discreet distance, he made a call.

"Corbin," a woman's voice said when the call was answered.

"Hello, Ronda." He gave his location, then said, "I've just seen Bayley Martinez buying two meals to go at a breakfast diner."

"You're sure it's her?" Ronda asked quickly, voice as sharp as a razor.

"I got a good look at her and compared her face to the picture you sent. She also happens to be driving a white van that exactly matches the description you gave. It's her. And I'm following her now. If you want her, get your ass down here. And remember the reward you promised."

"You'll get it, in cash," Ronda assured him. Before she ended the call, Corbin heard her speaking to someone else on her end of the line. "Charlotte, let's move."


	10. Chapter 10

Guilt hit Bayley once again when she walked back into the motel room. Seeing poor Becky handcuffed and taped up like that was awful at this point, and she hated herself for having done it, when all Becky had been doing was trying her best to express her feelings. By now, Bayley had convinced herself that those feelings were genuine, not part of some crazy escape attempt.

"Mmmmmph!" Becky pleaded into her gag as soon as she saw Bayley walk in and close the door.

Bayley set the bag which contained their breakfasts aside and dashed over to the bed. "I'm sorry, Becky. I shouldn't have handcuffed you again. I panicked. But I thought it all over while I was out, and I came to the conclusion that we want the same thing."

"Tmmph mm ommph," Becky mumbled.

"I'll do it now," Bayley said, then leaned down and worked on freeing the several layers of tape that she'd used for the particularly effective gag. Taking care to make the process as painless as possible, she took her time over it. It took her nearly a minute before she pulled the last of the tape from Becky's lips.

"What do you mean when you say we want the same thing?" Becky asked as soon as she was able to. "I thought we did, but then you taped me up again."

"I really am sorry. You wouldn't believe how much I regret doing that now. Here, let me get the cuffs off you."

"What did you decide?" Becky asked as Bayley set about freeing her wrists.

Bayley took a deep breath before speaking. She was apprehensive that once she told Becky what she'd been thinking, there would be no turning back. She would be committed to running away from her family, which would be a heart-wrenching thing to have to do. It was necessary though, to avoid jail or death at the hands of Charlotte and Ronda. "I think we have to run," she announced, voice barely above a whisper.

"We?" Becky asked, rubbing her wrists as she sat up. "You mean, we'll run together?"

"You kissed me earlier," Bayley said, sitting down beside her on the bed. "At the time, it made me panic. But now, I want to believe that you meant what you said before that kiss, that you want to be with me."

Becky looked her in the eyes, making sure to convey how serious she was as she said, "I did mean it. I meant every word. It might be crazy given the circumstances we're in, but I'm falling for you, Bayley. I think you're the cutest, sexiest girl I've ever seen, and I don't want to leave you, ever."

Taking Becky's hand, Bayley leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "I don't want to leave you either. I don't care how crazy it is, I can't deny what I feel for you, Becky. There's something about you that drives me crazy. It has done since the first time I saw you up close back at the cabin. After thinking over our situation, I came to the conclusion that the only real option we have is to flee the country. It means I have to leave my family behind, and you have to leave your invention behind, but I think it's the only realistic way to guarantee we stay alive at this point. We need false identities, and we need to get out of the country. If we don't, Ronda and Charlotte will not stop looking for us until they've tracked us down and killed us both."

Becky had already arrived at a very similar conclusion while Bayley had been out. It would have been ideal if Bayley had killed her two so-called partners back at the cabin, but Bayley wasn't a killer. That much was crystal clear by now. The truth was that aside from the BL-04 chip and her family, Becky wasn't running away from all that much. Sure, the chip would have been worth a lot of money when it was fully developed, and her family were, obviously, her family. However, she had never been in the least bit materialistic, and she had never been all that close to her family either, especially since she had moved to America. They were both sacrifices that she was prepared to make to stay with Bayley and escape the two killers who were sure to be hunting them even as they spoke.

"I've thought it all through," Becky said, taking Bayley's hand. "I only want to stay with you. I don't give a damn about the chip I invented, and I rarely speak to my family. If it means staying with you, I'll run to wherever we have to go to get away from Charlotte and Ronda."

Bayley squeezed Becky's hand. "Then we know what we're going to do." She leaned in and kissed Becky on the lips. The kiss was enthusiastically returned, and within moments they were lying on the bed, still kissing, frantically trying to remove each other's clothes. During the next half hour, all of the tension that had built up in them over the last few days was released as they made passionate love to each other.

"Oh, Becky," Bayley panted when it was over, sweat pouring down her face. Becky really could do incredible things with her tongue. In some ways, it was a truly crazy set of circumstances to be in, having just made love to the woman she'd kidnapped only a few days earlier, but it just felt right in every way. Love couldn't be denied, she told herself, wondering even as she thought it if she was being ridiculous or not.

"I really do need that shower now," Becky said coyly. "Care to join me?"

"Of course," Bayley said, allowing Becky to take her hand and pull her up off the bed.

A couple of minutes later, they were standing in the plastic bathtub, under the lukewarm water, not caring in the least about the abysmal conditions as they took great care and pleasure in washing each other with the soapy water, in between passionate kisses.

"Where do we go from here?" Becky asked after they had gotten out of the shower. She was gently toweling Bayley down, enjoying every second of it. From her point of view, she was ready to go, no matter where Bayley decided their destination should be. All that mattered was putting distance between themselves and Charlotte and Ronda before they somehow managed to track them down.

"I think what we should do is go out and get some supplies that we might need on the road, then we get the hell out of here. I know someone who can get us some false ID's, passports and such. We need to go see him. It won't be cheap, but I probably have just enough money to cover it. We might need you to access your account to get us some cash to buy plane tickets. That's not ideal by any means as they'll be looking for your account being used, as you're a missing person. It is what it is though, we need the money."

"Okay," Becky agreed easily. "I'll do that here then, before we leave. At least when they come looking, they'll be behind the game. We'd better get something to eat, too. We somehow forgot about the breakfast you brought back."

"I wonder how that happened?" Bayley grinned.

With the rough plan of action agreed, they dressed and left the motel room shortly afterwards, to make the short drive into the centre of town. It was nice for Becky to simply have the freedom to walk around outside, savouring the fresh air and the exercise after several days in captivity. The fact that she didn't consider running even once was testament to how deep her feelings for Bayley already were.

They spent over an hour in the town, starting by eating a quick meal at the diner, then calling at several stores to purchase travel supplies, new outfits and luggage. They then visited a bank, where Becky was able to withdraw a large cash sum from her account.

"Okay, let's go back to the room, get ourselves organised, then we can hit the road," Bayley said when they returned to the van. "I think we should make it a priority to steal a car from somewhere, too. I don't really like the idea of continuing to drive around in this thing, and we've got a lot of driving to do if we're going to go and see my guy about false ID's, and then head for the airport."

"Sounds like a plan," Becky said. "I mean, you've said you're a good thief. I assume you know how to steal cars?"

Bayley gave her a mischievous grin as she started the van's engine. "I do."

Ten minutes later, they were parked back at the motel, unloading their supplies into the motel room so they could get everything organised, ready to move out. Little did they know, a passer-by had been studying them carefully from across the street for the past couple of minutes.

Michael Cole was standing on the sidewalk, thinking that the redhead who had gotten out of the white van looked a lot like the missing woman whose picture had been on the news the past couple of days. True, this woman certainly didn't seem like a kidnap victim - unloading plastic bags full of shopping from the van of her own free will and enjoying a conversation with the driver in the process, but Michael had a good memory for faces. As the two women walked into the room for the final time and closed the door, he told himself it would be better to call the police and play on the safe side. After all, he would have almost been willing to make a bet that it was the same woman. He would do the right thing and call the cops. They could investigate from there. Noting the number of the room that the women had just gone into, he took out his phone as he turned and walked away.

* * *

"This is going to be a waste of time," John Cena complained as he drove the patrol car towards the motel.

"You never know," Nikki Bella, his partner for the day, replied. Her voice contained no real enthusiasm, however. The two officers had been ordered to head over to the local motel to check out a possible sighting of the missing girl Becky Lynch which had been phoned in to the station an hour or so earlier. However, judging by the way the witness had reported seeing the woman he'd insisted was Becky unloading shopping bags with another woman, neither officer was the least bit confident of their investigation actually leading anywhere.

"I don't even buy the story that it was a kidnapping to start with," Cena grumbled. "She was some computer scientist or something, right? For all we know, the stress of her job got too much for her and she decided to run. Or maybe, if this woman the witness saw even is Becky, she's been dating this other girl for a while and they decided to go start a new life together?"

Nikki glanced at him and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "In this town?"

"Good point," Cena conceded. "Well, we'll soon find out," he added as he pulled the patrol car into the motel's parking lot.

"Yep," Nikki agreed. "There's the white van the witness described, down at the far end."

Cena drove the patrol car slowly across the lot and parked up next to the van. "No signs of life," he observed, looking at the room number they'd been given to investigate. "But then, the curtain's drawn."

"Let's go check it out," Nikki said. Checking her gun was in its holster as she climbed out of the patrol car was an automatic gesture, rather than something she actually needed to do.

As the two officers approached the motel room's door, a black saloon car pulled into the other end of the parking lot, with Ronda behind the wheel.

"Shit!" Charlotte exclaimed in the passenger seat, pounding her fist on the dash in anger. "We're too fucking late. There's the van right there. Those cops are going to bust in and arrest Bayley, and rescue that bitch Becky. We're fucked!"

Ronda looked at her, eyes as cold as ice. She made a point of pulling her gun out from the waistband of her jeans. "Not yet we're not."


	11. Chapter 11

The loud knock at the door made Bayley jump as she zipped up the travel case that she had just finished packing. She wondered who could possibly be knocking on their door, immediately regretting the fact that she and Becky hadn't been able to resist each other when they'd returned to the room after their shopping trip. If they hadn't had sex again, they would have been on the road by now.

"Police! Open the door!" a man's voice called out loudly.

Bayley felt her blood run cold as Becky turned to her, eyes wide in surprise. But then it occurred to Bayley that there was no reason to panic. It wasn't as if she had Becky handcuffed and taped on the bed anymore. "Tell them we ran away together or something," she whispered to Becky, totally confident that she could trust her, as she walked over to open the door. There was no point in ignoring the request to open it; the cops would just kick it in anyway, and then things would be infinitely worse by default.

Opening the door, Bayley found herself confronted by two police officers, a muscled up man and a very attractive woman who definitely didn't look like police officer material. Appearances could be deceptive though. No one knew that more that Bayley, who had used the fact to her advantage many times as a thief. "Can I help you, officers?" she asked.

"Step aside, please," the man ordered, seeing Becky lingering in the background. "Are you Becky Lynch?"

That was when things started to happen in slow motion. Bayley noticed a black car pull up in the lot, right in front of their room. The young policewoman noticed it too, and turned around to see what was going on, taking out her gun, presumably as some kind of defensive instinct kicked in. Then Bayley saw who was in the passenger seat of the car. It was Charlotte, and she was raising a gun of her own.

"Gun!" Nikki called out, getting single round off at the exact same moment that Charlotte also fired. Nikki took the bullet right in the middle of her forehead, killing her instantly and showering Bayley with blood, brain matter and skull fragments. However, Nikki's bullet also found its target, hitting Charlotte in the throat, condemning her to a much slower, much more bloody and painful death.

"Get down! And stay down!" Cena screamed, shoving Bayley into the room and taking cover just inside the door frame, gun out at the ready.

As Bayley hit the floor and crawled over to the window, repulsed at being covered in someone else's blood and brains, she was glad to see that Becky had already laid down flat on the other side of the bed where no bullets from outside could possibly hit her. She saw that the unfortunately policewoman's gun had ended up bouncing over towards where Becky was when her lifeless body had fallen back into the room. Bayley saw Becky's hand reach out and snatch up the gun. Good. At least she had a way to defend herself if it came to that.

Cena assessed the situation as he risked a glance around the door frame. Nikki had valiantly taken out the first shooter, at the cost of her own life. The driver of the black car, another woman, had bailed out and taken cover behind the hood. Spotting him, she took a pot shot which hit the brickwork at the side of the door as Cena ducked back out of the way.

Bayley knew that the best thing she could do right now was stay down, out of sight and let the cop handle the situation. There was little alternative, given the fact that she didn't have a weapon. She heard the cop get on his radio and give his location and report that he was under fire, followed by, "Officer down! I need backup, right the hell now!"

Another shot rang out from outside and a bullet thudded into the motel room's door. Cena pivoted around the frame and got off a shot of his own, missing the blonde woman he was aiming at as she ducked out of the way behind the car.

Trying not to panic, Bayley cowered down beneath the window. She didn't even know what she wanted to happen at this point, thinking that it might actually be for the best if more cops showed up and arrested them. Better that than Ronda somehow getting into the room and killing both her and Becky. That prospect became a lot more likely only a few seconds later when Cena pivoted around the door frame again and fired his gun. Bayley saw his body jerk from the impact of a bullet, and he collapsed to the floor, blood quickly speaking out across his shirt from a bullet hole right about where his heart would be. Ronda had either gotten lucky, or she was one hell of a shot. Either way, the cop was going to die within moments.

Forcing herself to ignore the dying officer, Bayley snatched up his gun. Keeping herself and Becky alive was the only priority right now, and she had to act quickly if she was going to achieve it. She imagined that Ronda would right now be leaving whatever position of cover she'd taken up and sprinting for towards the room, intent on finishing the job she'd come to do. Then it occurred to her that she had one advantage: Ronda didn't know whereabouts in the room she or Becky were. She had to use that small advantage while she had it.

In one smooth motion, she stood up and pulled the thick curtain out of the way so that she could see out of the window. Sure enough, Ronda had just rounded the hood of her car, heading towards the room. Bayley hadn't fired a gun in anger before, but she had visited shooting ranges plenty of times. She knew how to steady herself and adopt a proper stance before firing. She figured she had one chance, and she had to make it count.

Everything slowed down even more as she took first pressure on the trigger.

Happy with her aim, she fired.

And missed. Ronda was still running at full speed towards the room.

Panic took over and Bayley squeezed off another round almost in a reflex action. To her own shock, it struck home, hitting Ronda in the side and taking her off her feet.

"Bayley!" Becky called out from behind the bed, clearly scared to death.

"I'm okay," Bayley said. "I just shot Ronda. Stay here, stay down. Don't move until I tell you."

"Okay," Becky replied timidly.

Bayley cautiously looked around the door frame. What she saw made her realise that she needed to act quickly again. Ronda had to be critically injured by the bullet wound in her side, but she was still alive. Her gun had bounced away from her when she had gone down, but she was now crawling towards it. Bayley knew that she had to get there first.

Sprinting out of the room, she reached the gun just before Ronda, and stepped on it so that her former partner couldn't pick it up. She glared down at the injured woman as she rolled over onto her back, coughing up blood as she did so. She could see that Ronda knew she was beaten. A strange thought crossed Bayley's mind in that moment as Ronda's glazed eyes looked up at her: if this was a Hollywood movie, she would have had some clever one-liner to deliver. It wasn't a movie though, and this wasn't a time to show mercy for someone who had been intent on killing her, so she just shot Ronda in the forehead.

Executing someone like that was cold-blooded to say the least, but it was necessary. So was getting the hell out of there before the cops showed up. She could hear sirens. Running back into the motel room, Bayley shouted, "Becky! Let's go! Ronda and Charlotte are dead, but we have to go before the cops show up!"

Becky got up from behind the bed, still holding the gun that had belonged to the female police officer. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed, seeing Bayley's face and clothes spattered with blood.

"None of it's mine," Bayley assured her. "Come on, we have to go."

Following Bayley's lead, Becky grabbed her travel case and they ran out of the room. They were too late, she saw, her heart sinking to the floor. Three police cars had just roared into the far end of the parking lot, sirens wailing.

"Drop your gun!" Bayley quickly yelled to Becky, knowing that it was over. The cops wouldn't hesitate to drop them both, knowing that at least one fellow officer had been shot at this location.

Becky tossed her gun away and raised her hands, as Bayley did the same. Armed officers came piling out of the patrol cars, screaming at them to get down on the ground and put their hands on the back of their heads.

"They're going to arrest us both for murder," Bayley told Becky, wishing she could at least hold her hand as their dreams of a life together in another country crashed and burned.

"I'll stay with you, no matter what," Becky said, tears already streaming down her face as she got down on the ground. "I love you, Bayley."

"I love you too," Bayley said.

Then the officers were on them, pinning them to the ground as they put them in handcuffs and read them their rights.

"We didn't do any of the killing!" Becky protested, not that any of the officers were going to listen to her. "We were trapped in the room, in the crossfire!"

Bayley didn't bother echoing the protests. She knew that she and Becky both had fingerprints all over guns that had been used to kill people. Even though it was true that Becky hadn't shot anyone, the female cop had shot Charlotte with that weapon. Maybe Becky would be able to get a jury to believe that, or maybe not. Maybe she might be able to convince a jury herself that she had killed Ronda out of self defense after taking the fallen officer's gun, or maybe not. At least, if there was any comfort, forensics would prove that neither of them had killed a police officer. As she was forced to walk in the direction of one of the patrol cars, with Becky being lead to another, she realised that the future was very uncertain. For some time at least, even if it was only until their trials were over, they were both going to jail.

Bayley was the first to reach the car she was going to be transported in. Resisted against the officers for the first time, she turned so that she could see Becky for what might be the last time in a long time. "I love you!" she called out.

"I love you too!" Becky called back weakly, sobbing helplessly. Moments later, she was bundled into the back of another car.

The two cars, with their two prisoners, quickly roared out of the parking lot, leaving the scene of chaos and death behind. Would they ultimately be deemed to have been responsible for it? Or would they be allowed to go free after being deemed to have acted in self defense? Only time would tell.


	12. Chapter 12

Bayley stopped for a second outside of a wooden office door. A gold plate fixed to the door proclaimed the office as belonging to the prison governor. Bayley had no idea why she had been summoned to see the woman who ran the whole prison for the first time. As far as she knew, she had done nothing wrong during her first month inside. In fact, she had actively been trying to stay out of trouble.

"Go on, in you go," the female guard who had fetched her from B Wing said. What was a little strange was that she wasn't one of the B Wing guards.

Trying to supress her nerves, Bayley opened the door and walked into the office.

"Bayley Martinez, ma'am," the guard announced from just inside the doorway, where she took a position against the wall, standing ready for the unlikely event that Bayley kicked off.

Behind a large oak desk sat an African American woman with purple hair and glasses with thick black rims. She had looked up from some paperwork when the door opened, and gave Bayley a hint of a smile. It was the first time Bayley had met Governor Banks in person.

"This won't take long, Martinez. I want to talk to you about Becky Lynch."

"Becky? Is she okay?" Bayley asked with immediate concern. She hadn't been allowed to see the girl she loved since the moment they had both been arrested after the motel shoot out. It had been a heart-breaking month, not knowing how her girl was or even where she was. She had been told Becky was in the prison, but she hadn't been assigned to B Wing. Frankly, the fact that Becky had been charged with murder was a travesty. She had done nothing wrong, and Bayley felt sure Becky could prove that easily when her case came to trial.

"Physically, she's fine," Banks confirmed, to Bayley's relief. "But mentally? We've been having a lot of trouble with her. She won't interact with other prisoners, won't apply for a job. Most days, she won't even go out for exercise or food unless she's made to. All she does is say she wants to be moved to be with you."

"Let me go to her, please," Bayley begged, instinctively making a praying gesture with her hands.

Banks looked irritated by the interruption, so Bayley quickly shut her mouth. "If you let me finish, I was going to say that B Wing is full to capacity. However, there is currently room for more prisoners on C Wing, where Becky is. You're going to be moving there with immediate effect, and you'll be sharing a cell with her."

Bayley's knees nearly buckled under her. She could barely believe what she had heard. "Thank you! Thank you!" she babbled.

"I'm counting on you to make sure Becky's morale, attitude and work ethic improve. Otherwise she's going to have to be shipped out to different facility," Banks warned.

"I'll make sure she's okay," Bayley promised.

Banks nodded. "Good. Then go bag up your possessions. Ms Deville will accompany you, then take you to C Wing."

"Thank you," Bayley said again, only receiving a dismissive hand gesture as a response. She didn't care in the least. All that mattered was that she was going to Becky!

The guard, who was apparently called Deville and presumably worked C Wing, ushered her out of the office and in the direction of B Wing. They walked for a minute before the guard spoke. "You're moving up in the world, Martinez."

"What do you mean?" Bayley asked, glancing at the undeniably attractive but stern-faced woman. She looked well capable of dealing out a serious sorting out to any prisoner who got out of line.

"C Wing is more modern than B Wing. Also, your girlfriend is in the ones. It was an attempt to brighten her up a bit, not that it worked."

Bayley knew that she meant Becky had a first floor cell. Given only to low risk, well-behaved prisoners, the ones were slightly more spacious than the ground floor cells, like the one Bayley was currently in. They also came with a little TV and a radio. Most importantly, though, the new cell would have Becky.

Fifteen minutes later, Deville was unlocking the security gate at the entrance to C Wing. Bayley walked in, carrying a clear plastic bag with her possessions in it. Her clothes would be brought later by the guards after they all been checked out for security reasons.

Ms Deville hadn't lied. C Wing looked fairly new, especially in comparison to the dated B Wing. Bayley saw a couple of women cleaning tables in the nearby eating area. They both looked over at the new arrival, pondering the first questions that went through every prisoner's minds when someone new showed up: Who is she? What is she like? What is she in for?

After locking the door behind them, Deville pointed to the stairs and said, "Go on."

As she walked forward, Bayley realised that C Wing also had a second floor, something B Wing didn't have. "Who goes on the second floor?" she asked.

"Lifers," came the simple reply from the guard, chilling Bayley to the core. There were some seriously dangerous people in here. People like Charlotte Flair or Ronda Rousey. Luckily for her, both of those women were dead, otherwise they would have been out for her blood.

It wasn't a surprise that there were not many people around at this time of day. It was work time, which meant that a lot of the prisoners would be elsewhere, doing their jobs. Those who didn't have jobs had free time, and would be outside on a glorious day like this. Sun streamed through the open doors of each cell, into the central atrium that Bayley was walking through.

Deville took the lead up the stairs, turned left at the top and walked three doors down the metal landing to a cell with a closed door that was marked C108. The door wasn't locked. Deville pushed it open and announced. "New cellmate for you, Lynch."

"I don't want a..." Bayley heard in her girl's strong Irish accent before she reached the doorway. As soon as Bayley appeared in the doorway, Becky stopped in her tracks, totally shocked for a second. She was lounging on the bottom of the cell's two bunks, looking thoroughly miserable. That soon changed.

"Hey," Bayley said, feeling tears stinging her eyes. She had thought of this moment every day for a month. Becky looked even more beautiful than she remembered. She was simply breath-taking. And they were reunited.

"Bayley!" Becky shrieked in delight, jumping up off the bottom bunk and running into her girl's arms. "Oh my God, I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too!" Bayley exclaimed, tears trickling down her cheeks. "I wondered if I would ever see you again. I can't believe it. I love you."

"I love you too," Becky cried, holding on to her for dear life.

"I'll leave you to it," Deville said with a hint of a smile at the heart-warming scene.

"Thanks, miss," Becky said politely. Miss or ma'am were the acceptable ways to address a female guard, while it was sir or Mr for the male ones.

After the door closed, Bayley and Becky just stood there in each other's arms, kissing and savouring the amazing fact that they were reunited.

"Ms Banks said you've not been doing well," Bayley said eventually. "She said you've not been going outside, won't take a job, won't interact with anyone. All you wanted was..."

"You," Becky said, looking adoringly into her eyes. "Yes. I told them I wouldn't do anything until they moved us into the same cell. I thought about going on hunger strike. Apparently my persistence was worth it, because here you are."

"Here I am," Bayley confirmed with a loving smile. With that, they started kissing with the passion of lovers who had spent a long time apart. They moved over to the bunks and lay down on the bottom one, where they spent an hour making out and exploring each other's bodies with their hands. Every second of it was truly delightful.

The sound of a ground floor cell door being banged shut brought the experience to an end. Another door banged shut soon afterwards, possibly on the first floor.

"Time for lock up," Becky breathed, her hair a mess, sheer pleasure and relief in her eyes now that she was back with Bayley.

Reluctantly, Bayley got up off the bed and picked up the clear bag with her possessions in it. She knew that after work time was over, prisoners were locked in their cells for an hour while dinner was prepared. There would also be a cursory inspection of their cell before the door was locked. Neither of them had needed to say that they didn't want a guard to see them on the bed together. Tossing the bag onto the top bunk, Bayley climbed up there and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Better tidy myself up," Becky said, walking over to the mirror to fix her hair.

"What are the guards like on C Wing?" Bayley asked. "That one, uh, Deville? She didn't seem too bad."

"No, she's okay. Most of them are on this wing, as long as you don't piss them off of course. I don't know how it was for you on B Wing, but we have eight guards, four on day shift and four on night shift."

"And they change around every couple of weeks," Bayley said knowingly.

Done fixing her hair, Becky turned around and nodded. "Exactly. They have two men and two women on each shift. At the moment on days we have Ms Deville and Ms Young, with Mr Reigns and Mr Rollins. They're all okay, for guards."

"What about the other shift?"

"That's Mr Ambrose, Mr Styles, Ms Stratus and..." Becky visibly shuddered. "Ms Vega. She's the head guard on C Wing."

"You don't like her?" Bayley prompted, having seen the reaction her girl had to simply speaking the name.

"She's the most nasty, evil person I've ever met. She treats everyone appallingly badly, and gets away with it somehow. Everyone hates her, but we're also scared of her. I saw a girl lose it and punch her once, and you wouldn't believe the beating Vega gave her. She must have half killed her. I can't believe she didn't get fired for it, but she didn't. She went off to see Governor Banks and came back half an hour later like nothing happened."

"She sounds awful," Bayley gasped.

"She is. I got a letter from my parents a couple of weeks back. It meant so much to me I cried when I got it. Unfortunately it was Ms Vega who handed out the mail that day and she saw my reaction. The next day, she came and said she needed to do a search of my cell. She found the letter under my mattress, tore it up and flushed it down the toilet." Becky was almost brought to tears again by recounting the story.

"Bitch," Bayley snarled.

"She is. That's the kind of thing she does, just to be cruel. So, again, whenever she's around, be careful. Get on her bad side, or even attract her attention and she'll do something to you."

"Noted," Bayley said, hopping off the bunk to go and comfort Becky. "No one's going to hurt you now I'm here," she promised as they embraced, holding each other tightly again.

The sound of the door being slammed shut on the cell next to theirs made them jump apart. A moment later, their door opened. A mountain of a man with long black hair and a beard strode into the cell, his expression registering surprise at seeing Bayley there.

"Hello, Mr Reigns," Becky said politely. "This is Bayley."

"Oh, Bayley," Reigns said with a genuine smile. "I've heard a lot about you from this one. I'm glad they've moved you over here. Maybe we'll be able to get Becky out of her cell now?"

Bayley smiled at the guard while Becky said, "You will. I'll be on my best behaviour now."

"I'll hold you to that," Reigns said seriously. He took a brief look around the cell, which apparently constituted the inspection he was supposed to make. Most of the guards didn't actually bother when the inmates in question were low risk.

"Dinner in an hour, ladies," Reigns said on his way out the door. It was slammed shut and locked behind him.

"Seems like an okay guy," Bayley observed. "So, what about the prisoners? Ms Deville said there are lifers here."

"You didn't have any on B Wing?" Becky asked in surprise.

Bayley shook her head. "Nope. Tell me about them."

"We might as well wait until we go for dinner. I can point everyone out and tell you about them."

* * *

 _A/N: Welcome back to this story, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the return chapter?_

 _As my regular readers will know, I like to get some interaction going with you all. With that in mind, I'm going to open the reviews up to suggestions for prisoners who might be on C Wing. Remember, Charlotte and Ronda are dead, so don't suggest them._

 _Anyone who reviewed the previous iteration of chapter 12 will need to log out to review as the site doesn't allow you to review the same chapter number again. Sigh._


	13. Chapter 13

When they descended the stairs to the ground floor, Bayley saw that she and Becky were going to be among the last ones to join the line to be served food. As had been the case on B Wing, two prisoners were in charge of cooking and serving meals, handing them to prisoners one at a time over a small counter. Bayley saw that on C Wing the task had been given to a very short young woman with blonde hair that had dyed pink ends, along with a much taller, much bigger woman with long dark hair and a stern face.

"Christ, who is that?" Bayley asked Becky, subtly pointing to the huge woman.

"That's Nia. She's as dumb as a box of rocks. Next to her is Alexa Bliss. Basically, Nia does everything Alexa tells her to. It's blatant manipulation; Alexa doesn't give a damn about her at all, but somehow Nia can't see it. Some people are just sheep, I guess."

"What are they in for?" Bayley asked as they walked over to the back of the line.

"Nia just for petty crimes. Violence, petty theft, drug possession, crap like that. She's just a loser, really. Bliss, though, she's one to watch your back around. She's a lifer, in for a double murder."

"Wow," Bayley said, drawing the word out. "She doesn't look capable."

"Don't you believe it. Apparently she came home one day and found her boyfriend sleeping with another woman. She stabbed them both multiple times before pouring petrol over them and setting them on fire. The story is the boyfriend was already dead by then, but the woman was still alive. Alexa says she stood outside the house listening to the screams, enjoying every second of it, or so I heard."

"Jesus Christ," Bayley muttered, trying to comprehend that level of sadism.

"Exactly. So be careful around her."

As Becky was speaking, a tall woman with dark hair breezed past the line, walking straight to the front of it and pushing in. She was flanked by two other women, both blondes. Bayley noted that no one objected to the woman cutting the line.

"Who is that? And who does she think she is?"

"Her name is Stephanie McMahon," Becky revealed, making Bayley immediately take in a sharp breath. That was who Ronda had taken the contract from to kidnap Becky! The plan had gone wrong when McMahon had been arrested, and now here she was here on the same wing as them! Bayley had never seen Stephanie in person before, but she had been high profile enough in the criminal world that Bayley definitely knew what she looked like, and knew her reputation for ruthlessness.

"And yes, I know she was the one who hired you guys to kidnap me," Becky went on. "She already made a point of telling me that, along with the fact that she wants to know what happened to her half a million dollars."

Bayley's eyes widened. "She said what?"

"Apparently that's the down payment she paid you guys for the job. She didn't end up with me, so she wants her money back. Ronda and Charlotte are dead, so I think as far as she's concerned right now, you owe her the money."

"Well she can fuck herself," Bayley snapped. "I didn't even have access to the money, and it's not my fault she got herself arrested. Anyway, I'm glad she did, otherwise I dread to think what might have happened to you by now."

"At least you rescued me," Becky said, glaring at the back of Stephanie and the two women with her.

"Who are those two with her?" Bayley asked.

"Her little shit flies, Emma and Dana. They were in here before McMahon showed up, but they immediately latched on to her and started sucking up to her. Now they act like they're her bodyguards or something. I'm sure she's got people on the outside 'looking after them'. Money talks, even in here."

During the course of the line moving forwards, Becky pointed out a few more notable faces. A seriously mean looking girl with tattoos on her arm seemed to exchange a few heated words with Bliss before taking her food.

"That's Shayna," Becky said. "Another lifer, another murderer, and another one to steer clear of if at all possible. She strangled a girl with her bare hands. She also damn near killed a guard in here, but that was before I arrived."

"There are some dangerous people in here," Bayley said nervously, wishing she could go back to B Wing with the drug dealers, thieves, money launderers and people of that nature. They were unpleasant, but they were not this bad.

Becky nodded. "Yeah. But don't forget we're in for allegedly shooting people."

"That's true," Bayley admitted, even though the accusations against Becky were false.

A black woman with a crazy look in her eyes took a tray of food, accompanied by a look of disgust from Bliss.

"Who's that?" Bayley asked. "She looks really weird."

"She is. That's Alicia. She has more than one screw loose. She's in for multiple arson and criminal damage offenses. The story is she had a thing for walking into clothes stores and setting things on fire. I can't believe it took more than one offense like that before they put her away, but it's not my justice system. Hell, if it was, neither of us would even be here."

"Well, I probably would," Bayley sighed. "I'm not only in for shooting Ronda. I'm also looking at charges for kidnapping, false imprisonment, as well as several burglaries I was already wanted for before I got involved with Ronda and Charlotte."

Becky studied her for a second. "It's hard to see you robbing somewhere, Bayley."

"I was good at it," Bayley said frankly. "I could often do it in broad daylight and get away with it. It's all about looking like you're supposed to be doing what you're doing. Pull that off, and no one will question you. It's one of the simplest tricks in the book."

"Plus you have a really innocent face," Becky said with love in her voice. "Such a pretty face, too."

While not paying attention, they had reached the front of the line.

"Come on, dykes," Alexa Bliss snapped at them, apparently having heard the compliment. "I don't have all fucking day here."

The homophobic insult angered Bayley, but she remembered Becky's warning to be careful around this nasty little piece of work. For now at least, she decided to head the warning.

"Sorry," Becky said, stepping forward to take her food. It was all served on a single plastic meal tray, with little areas on it for each item of food to be put into. Today's selection of crap was mashed potato, chicken nuggets, carrots, spinach and a banana, with a choice of drink.

"Water, tea or coffee?" Nia demanded to know as Bliss disrespectfully dumped Becky's portion of mashed potato on her tray.

Becky asked for water. When she had been given it, she moved aside to allow Bayley to step forward.

"Ohhh, someone new!" Alexa exclaimed with a big smile that went nowhere close to reaching her eyes. "What's your name?"

"Bayley. I'll have coffee, please."

Nia set about fixing the drink, while Alexa dumped a portion of mashed potato on her tray. "Enjoy," she said, before spitting on it. She looked up at Bayley with a smug expression on her face, but it was quickly wiped off by the voice of a female guard who was standing nearby, who had evidently seen what had happened.

"Bliss, fix another tray, now! I see you do something like that again, you'll be back on cleaning the bathroom."

"Sorry, Miss Young," Alexa said sheepishly, still managing to glare at Bayley as if it was her fault she had been caught out. Bayley also saw her clench her latex gloved hands into fists for a moment as some violent urge went through her head. Yes, a very dangerous woman, Bayley thought.

"Here," Bliss said a minute later, handing another tray to Bayley, this time with clean food on it.

"Thank you," Bayley replied with politeness that wasn't deserved in the least. With that, she took the tray and walked over to join Becky, who had taken an empty table in the eating area.

"Nasty little bitch, that one, like I said," Becky said as Bayley sat down.

Bayley nodded. "So I see."

They hungrily attacked their meals, making small talk as they ate. No one bothered them at all for more than ten minutes, by which point Bayley was almost done eating. She suddenly saw Becky stiffen opposite her, looking behind Bayley at someone who had approached them. Bayley smelled expensive perfume and felt warm breath against her ear just before she heard Stephanie McMahon's voice, instantly recognisable even in a whisper by its irritating nature.

"I want a word with you," McMahon said, making it sound very much like a threat lay not far away. "Get your ass to my cell after meal time, understand?"

"Yes," Bayley said, feeling genuinely afraid. Not many people could do that to her, but McMahon was one of them. It wasn't about what Stephanie herself could do to hurt someone – she was too smart to get her own perfectly-manicured hands dirty - it was what she could have others do on her behalf. Bayley knew that it wasn't just her that could be in danger, it was her family on the outside too. It would be no problem for Stephanie to make something happen to them if she wanted to.

"Good. Because I have questions, and you'd better have answers."

"McMahon!" the guard called Young said in a warning tone from where she was standing with her back against the wall nearby.

Without another word to Bayley or the guard, Stephanie stood back up and walked off towards the stairs, looking like she thought she owned the place, with her two underlings trailing behind her.

"Oh god, Bay," Becky said, sounding panicked.

"It'll be alright," Bayley promised her, even though it wasn't something she felt sure of. "I bet she wants to know what went wrong with me, Ronda and Charlotte. I'll tell her I never had access to her money. Ronda was the one who had access to the account Stephanie paid it into, and she never gave me or Charlotte the details for it."

"She's probably also going to want to know how we ended up in love with each other," Becky pointed out.

And good luck to me explaining that, Bayley thought. As if McMahon would understand that part of the story. It barely made sense to Bayley herself, let alone someone who hadn't been there in the shack where Becky had been held hostage, or in the motel where they had fled to.

"I'll figure something out," Bayley assured Becky. "Come what may, I'll make sure you and I are okay, Becks. I need you to trust me."

"I trust you," Becky said without hesitation, reaching across the table and taking her girl's hand. They sat like that for the next half an hour, making more small talk and simply enjoying being with each other at last.

After meal time, there was a two hour period of free time on the schedule for prisoners. They could spend time in their cells, or even in other prisoner's cells, so long as they were well behaved. There was an area downstairs with a pool table and seating in front of a large TV that played movies or sports events. By the time everyone was told to leave the eating area, though, recreation was the last thing on Bayley's mind. Stephanie McMahon was upstairs waiting for her.

The start of evening free time was also when the night shift guards came on duty, with a half hour overlap before the day shift team left to go home. As Bayley and Becky stood up to make their way upstairs, Becky took Bayley's hand again and squeezed it, looking over towards the C Wing entrance. "There's Vega," she said under her breath.

Bayley turned to get her first look at the nasty piece of work who was C Wing's head guard, who apparently got a kick out of mistreating and tormenting prisoners. She saw two women in guard uniforms letting themselves in through the locked gate. One was a young, dark-skinned woman about the same height as Alexa Bliss, with long black hair and eyes that indicated cruelty, even though she was currently happily chatting away to the other guard. Vega, Bayley thought, already taking a dislike to her. She didn't look like much, but Bayley knew better than to take that at face value. She didn't look like all that much herself, but she could handle herself in a fight if she needed to.

"That other guard is Ms Stratus," Becky said. "She's possible the nicest of all of them. She was very kind to me on some of my first days here, when I was really struggling."

Just hearing that tugged on Bayley's heartstrings. She gave her girlfriend a hug and said, "Oh, Becks. I wish I could have been here with you."

"You're here now, that's all that matters," Becky said, holding her tightly.

A blonde woman came marching down the nearby stairs at that moment, an angry look on her face. She marched up to them and spoke to Bayley in an Australian accent. "I don't know if you're retarded or something, but keeping Stephanie waiting is a pretty fucking dumb idea."

As tempting as it was to tell the flunky to fuck herself, Bayley knew it would be a bad idea. Instead, she went with, "I'm coming now."

She gave Becky a peck on the cheek and promised to meet her back in their cell as soon as she could. With that, she hurried after the McMahon underling, who was leading the way to Stephanie's cell. Bayley realised that whatever was about to happen was going to be crucial to both her future and Becky's.

"You've got this, Bay," she told herself on her way up the stairs.

* * *

 _A/N: Many thanks to everyone who left a review and a suggestion for characters to include as prisoners last time. What do you make of the ones we've heard about and met so far?_

 _For the prediction question, what do you think Stephanie is going to say to or want from Bayley? Leave your answers in a review!_


	14. Chapter 14

Stephanie McMahon's other flunky was standing outside the door to her cell when Bayley got there. She was an odd-shaped girl, obviously heavily into body building. "Don't try anything, or I'll be on you in a second," she said, trying to sound menacing.

"You don't scare me," Bayley informed her. While she didn't have a propensity for violence, she certainly wasn't afraid to stand up for herself.

"Dana," Stephanie called out from inside the cell. "There's no need for being inhospitable, yet."

Bayley walked into the cell, being glared at by Dana as she passed by her. The attitude of some nobody was the least of Bayley's concerns. A much bigger problem was the ice cold look in McMahon's eyes when they came face to face for the first time. Unlike some petty thug, Stephanie was someone to be feared.

"Close the door, and sit down," Stephanie ordered in a manner only a person who was never argued with could use.

Doing as she was told, Bayley pushed the door shut and took a seat on the single bed opposite the one Stephanie was sitting on. The fact that the cell had single beds instead of bunks was remarkable enough, before considering the fact that the one Bayley was sitting on clearly wasn't used by anyone. Somehow, McMahon had been able to get a cell all to herself. Not only that, there were plenty of expensive clothes and pieces of jewellery in the cell. It was about as close to a hotel room as you could get in a prison.

"Now, why don't we start with my half a million dollars?" Stephanie suggested, linking her hands in her lap.

The way it was phrased immediately triggered Bayley. She decided to set out her stall as someone who wasn't going to be easily pushed around. "Your half a million dollars?" she asked, raising her eyebrows slightly. "That was a down payment on the job we carried out, successfully, I might add."

Stephanie's glare intensified. "No, it was a down payment on Becky Lynch and her computer chip idea coming into my possession. Last time I checked, she's not working in the laboratory I had waiting for her, she's sitting down there in a cell." She pointed at the wall in the direction of Becky and Bayley's cell.

"Yes, because you got arrested before we could hand her over. We were all ready to go. Our part of the bargain was going like a dream. We kidnapped her. We had her bound and gagged in a bedroom in a secure location. All we had to do was meet you for the exchange, but when Ronda called you, there was no answer. That's when we learned you had been arrested. I get that you're angry about the whole situation, but surely you must see there was no wrongdoing on my part?"

"No wrongdoing on your part," Stephanie said slowly, a sour expression on her face. "Your two partners ended up shot dead, and you're now in prison dyking it up with the bitch you kidnapped. I'd say it's pretty obvious there was some wrongdoing somewhere. Maybe you ought to explain to me how you went from not being able to contact me to where we find ourselves now? And then you can tell me what happened to my money."

"I'll do that first," Bayley said, getting more heated than she would ideally have wanted to thanks to the homophobic comment from Stephanie. "As far as I know, the money is still in whatever account you transferred it to. Ronda had the details for it and she didn't share them with either me or Charlotte. So I don't have it, I don't have access to it, and I can't give it back to you no matter how much you threaten me."

McMahon looked like she had just been forced to eat a dog shit sandwich as she mulled that over for a few seconds. If there was a small silver lining, Bayley didn't pick up on any distrust. At least her story, which was true, had been believed.

"Just as I suspected. Then there's only one thing for it," Stephanie decided eventually. "Since you killed Ronda and effectively lost the money, I consider you to owe me half a million dollars. You plainly don't have the money to pay me back, which leaves me only two options, which I have been considering for some time in case we found ourselves having this conversation: I can either have you killed and use that to send a message to anyone who gets on the wrong side of me, or I can allow you to work off the debt."

"What are you saying?" Bayley asked warily, steering well clear of a further protest about the so-called debt. Heading down that road was only going to have negative consequences for her, and for Becky.

"I'll do the questioning," Stephanie snapped. "Speaking of which, you didn't answer my original question yet. I want to know how it all went so wrong for the three of you, and how the hell Becky came out of it supposedly in love with you. Because that's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard," she added nastily.

It didn't matter at all to Bayley what McMahon thought of her, her girlfriend, or their budding relationship. All that mattered right now was that Stephanie seemed to think she could put them to work in some way until she adjudged them to have effectively paid back half a million dollars. It was unfair that they were in that positon. It was unjust. But it was better than being killed, and Bayley didn't doubt for a minute that Stephanie could make that happen, even in the prison. She decided the best course of action was to be honest about the way everything had happened, and she began to recount it all, from finding out that Charlotte wanted to kill her and Becky after the plan went wrong, to fleeing the cabin, to the shootout at the motel.

"So Becky didn't actually commit any kind of crime at all," Stephanie mused after listening attentively to the entire story.

"No. The charges against her are ridiculous, and it should be easy to prove that at her trial," Bayley said. "Me, though? I was wanted for other stuff, so I'll definitely be going down."

No interest in that news registered on Stephanie's face, but she did lean forward, staring into Bayley's eyes. "How do you think hearing that story makes me feel, Bayley?"

"What? I have no idea," Bayley floundered. "I'm sure you don't give a damn whether I get found guilty or not."

Stephanie grunted a laugh. "You're right, I don't. But I have to say, there's something about you that impresses me. There's more to you than your innocent appearance suggests. You know how the world works, and you know how to get things done. I could use someone like you, Bayley. Your girlfriend, not so much, but…"

"We come as a pair," Bayley said firmly, not sure herself why she had risked cutting in.

Stephanie raised one eyebrow slightly. "Is that a fact?"

It was perfectly clear to Bayley that she was in a very dangerous situation. The last thing Becky would want to do was work for the woman whose orders had gotten her into this whole thing to start with, but it was better that than have someone shank her to death one day. Ultimately, it was a question of doing what had to be done to stay alive. Bayley would have to convince her of that.

"What makes you think some computer nerd is any use to me in here?" Stephanie demanded impatiently after a moment of silence from Bayley.

"You took on those pair of clueless idiots out there for protection," Bayley pointed out. "I guarantee Becky and I could do a better job than them."

Leaning forward, Stephanie looked even more menacing than ever. "You guarantee it, do you?"

"I do," Bayley said, making sure not to show any sign of intimidation. "You can tell as well as I can that they're just a couple of empty-headed idiots who like to act tough. It's obvious from one look at them," she said without hesitation. If working for McMahon was going to be the way to save herself and Becky, she was prepared to do it, no matter how unpleasant it was. But there had to be that promise of eventual from Stephanie. "What happens to us in the future? What's to stop you using us for a while and then having us killed anyway?"

"Nothing," Stephanie said with an offhanded shrug. "But I don't have a habit of getting rid of people who are useful and loyal to me. So, let's say I told those two braindead bimbos out there to get lost and took you and Becky on in their places. You might look at that as an opportunity to prove yourselves worthy of keeping around, and to work off your debt at the same time. Do we understand each other?"

Bayley nodded. "We do."

"Good," Stephanie said with a smile that still had no warmth in it. "You can start by giving the news to the other two. Let's see how you handle yourself."

"What, now?" Bayley asked.

Anger flashed in Stephanie's eyes for a second. She wasn't used to being questioned like that. "Let's just take it as a given that when I tell you to do something I mean now unless I say otherwise," she hissed.

"Of course, sorry," Bayley said, forcing herself to put the required amount of respect in her voice as she got up and headed for the door. If nothing else, at least the first job she had been given would be relatively enjoyable. She opened the door and found the two blondes standing outside talking to each other. Keeping in mind that Stephanie was watching and listening from inside the cell, Bayley chose her words very deliberately.

"The two of you, fuck off, now," she ordered. "You're no longer required."

"Says who?" the bodybuilder called Dana demanded incredulously.

"Says me," Bayley snapped. "I'm working for Stephanie now, and that means you're not. So like I said, fuck off."

"You going to make us?" the other woman said, eyeing Bayley up as a possible opponent in a fight.

"If I have to, sure," Bayley told her. "But it's my first day in here, so I'd like to avoid putting you both in the hospital if I can, and I'm sure Stephanie would prefer not to have to go to the trouble of arranging someone to finish the two of you off while you were there for disrespecting her. It'd be easier if you just got the hell out of my sight, like I told you to. But the choice is yours. What's it going to be?"

"Didn't want the stupid job anyway," Dana lied with a scornful look on her face. With that, she turned and walked away, with her friend Emma following along behind.

"Not bad," Stephanie said from behind Bayley, now standing up. "You actually sound convincing when you talk tough. I like that. I'm starting to see why Ronda picked you for the job."

Bayley turned around to face her and spoke frankly. "Yeah, and then I killed Ronda when she came after me. Like I said before, I'm willing to do what it takes to survive. If that means working for you, that's what I'll do."

"You'd better hope your girlfriend sees it the same way," Stephanie said, showing no sign of being impressed with Bayley's tough words. "Go and tell her what we've agreed, then bring her back here. I'm going to have her stand here and swear loyalty to me, if she wants to ever see the outside of this shit hole again. Once she's done that, only good things will happen for the two of you, so long as you keep that loyalty. There have been people who have gone from the very bottom, where you are right now, to the top in my organisation before."

"I'll be back soon," Bayley promised the woman was now her new boss, hoping that Becky would see things the way McMahon had described them, with only good things to come if they worked for her faithfully. She seriously doubted it.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to those who left a review last time. I'm glad you're all enjoying the story!_

 _So, Bayley and Becky, rather than being killed, have been told they are going to have to work for McMahon. How do you think Becky is going to react to that piece of news? Will she agree to swear loyalty to Stephanie? Submit your predictions in a review!_


	15. Chapter 15

On her way out of Stephanie McMahon's cell, Bayley considered that half of the job was done. She had managed to avoid a situation where McMahon was out for blood from her and Becky, albeit not in a way she would have liked. And therein lay the second half of the job. She now had to convince Becky that it was in their best interest to agree to work for Stephanie. She expected it not to be an easy task to say the least. After all, it was Stephanie who had ordered Becky's kidnapping and gotten her into this situation in the first place.

As soon as she emerged onto the first floor landing, Bayley saw another potential problem coming her way. The infamous guard called Vega was walking along the landing in the opposite direction. There was going to be no way to avoid the nasty little bitch, who had a scowl on her face. It only intensified when saw Bayley, a new face to her.

"You're new here. Name?" Vega barked when they came close to each other.

Bayley knew she would be best served by showing respect, even if she didn't feel inclined to after hearing from Becky some of the cruel things Vega had done to prisoners, including Becky herself. "Bayley Martinez, miss," she said, feeling cowed by the guard in front of her despite being probably six inches taller than her.

"Ah, yes," Vega said, recognising the name. A look of distaste had appeared on her face. "You've been moved over here from B Wing because your girlfriend refused to do as she was told. I don't approve of prisoners getting their own way by being disobedient, so rest assured I'll be watching you, Martinez. Step out of line once and I'll be on you faster than flies on shit. You hear me?"

"Yes, miss," Bayley said, wishing she could spit in the bitch's face.

"Good. Now, tomorrow, both of you lettuce lickers are going to be assigned a job, like Lynch should have been weeks ago. And when you get it, you're going to do it and do it properly. Understand?"

Bayley had heard more than enough homophobic comments for one day. She was almost shaking with anger, but she had to do her best not to let it show. "Yes," she replied, more aggressively than she should have.

"Yes, miss!" Vega shouted at her. "Have you not be told how to correctly address people in this prison? Do you need to be put on report?"

Being on report was what happened to prisoners who misbehaved. For a period of a week or more, privileges were removed, they were transferred to one of the crappy ground floor cells if they didn't have one already, and they were monitored a lot more closely by the guards, who had to report to the governor on their behaviour on a regular basis. It was a really unpleasant experience, and not one Bayley wanted to land herself with. Vega was obviously looking for a reason to inflict the punishment on her.

"No, miss, sorry," Bayley grovelled, hating having to demean herself like that.

Vega showed no sign of satisfaction at receiving the apology. She merely gestured towards Bayley's cell with her head and barked, "Move."

It occurred to Bayley at that moment that she hadn't been told who her personal officer was going to be now that she was on C Wing. Each prisoner was assigned a personal officer who had to be more familiar with their individual circumstances, and had to be the prisoner's first point of contact in the event of issues with other prisoners or with a particular guard. Bayley was considering making a complaint about Vega.

"Miss?" she asked politely.

"What?" Vega snapped.

"Do you know who my personal officer is?"

A smug smile appeared on Vega's face. "Yeah. Me. So we'll be sitting down once a week and having ourselves a nice little chat. Won't that be fun?"

Inwardly, Bayley sighed. It was just her luck that she happened to be assigned to Vega. "Yes, can't wait," she sighed as she trudged off towards her cell, where Becky was waiting for her.

When Bayley opened the cell door and walked in, Becky was lying on the bottom bunk. She quickly sat up when she saw her girlfriend and asked, "How did it go?"

"Great," Bayley said sarcastically as she pushed the door shut. "I ran into Vega for the first time. She really is the nasty piece of shit you described, and she's my personal officer, too."

"Jesus Christ," Becky groaned. "That's rough luck, Bay. I have Ms Stratus, and she's really nice."

"No such luck for me," Bayley muttered as she sat down next to Becky and they snuggled up to each other. "One encounter with her, and I already detest the bitch."

Becky grunted a laugh that had no humour in it. "So does everyone else. What about Stephanie? What did she have to say for herself?"

Bayley looked at her girlfriend and shook her head. "Nothing you're going to enjoy hearing. She started by saying that since I killed Ronda, since Charlotte is dead, and since you're here in prison instead of locked up in whatever lab she was going to have you put in, I owe her half a million dollars. There's no logic to that at all, obviously, but that's what she said."

"Is she insane, or what?" Becky asked.

"Oh no, not at all," Bayley replied. "Evil, yes. Insane, definitely not. Needless to say, I told her I didn't have her money, and I can't access it. Even if the feds haven't seized it from Ronda's account, there's no way I can get my hands on it. Stephanie said that left her two options for what to do with you and I: Kill us both to set an example to anyone else who crosses her, or…"

"Yeah, let's go for the or," Becky said with typical dry Irish humour. "I think I'm going to prefer the or."

Bayley grimaced and shook her head again. "I'm not totally sure about that. The other option was for us to swear loyalty to her and to work for her as protection."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Becky groaned. "Could this get any worse? I'm in prison for a crime I didn't commit, with a bunch of psychos on the same wing as me, with the nastiest bitch on the face of the planet for a guard, and now I'm going to have to work for the woman who had me kidnapped and started all of this shit to begin with. And if I don't, I get killed, and so does the girl I love."

By the end of her rant, Becky was close to tears. Bayley wrapped her up in a hug, and Becky rested her head on her shoulder.

"That's about the size of it," Bayley admitted reluctantly. "I know it's a dreadful situation, Becks, but you'll get out of it. As soon as your trial comes up, you'll be found not guilty and you'll be away from all of this."

"And away from you," Becky said, holding her tighter. "I don't want to go away from you, Bayley."

Her words brought tears to Bayley's eyes. It was pretty much an inevitability that they were going to be parted by the justice system. Becky simply had to be found not guilty of her charges, whereas Bayley was wanted for, and guilty of, multiple crimes. She was likely going down for a significant number of years.

"I don't want to be away from you either, baby," she said softly. "But we both know it's going to happen. You're going to get out. You're going to go back to your life; to your friends; to your family; to your job; to your genius invention. You get to leave all of this shit behind."

"But I can't leave you behind, Bay," Becky wailed. "I can't. I won't."

"You'll have to. And you will," Bayley said forlornly. "You can always come and visit me. But before either of us get that far, we have to stay on the right side of Stephanie. Because if we don't, I really believe she'll have us killed."

They sat in silence for a long moment, savouring the small amount of comfort that being together gave them in their awful situation. It was Becky who eventually spoke. What she had to say really came as a shock to Bayley.

"Maybe working for Stephanie will be a good thing? If so, I'll do it."

"What are you getting at?" Bayley asked, pulling out of the embrace so that she could look Becky in the eye.

"I'm thinking the only chance we have to be together outside of this dump is if you can somehow beat your charges. I'm thinking someone like Stephanie probably has an insanely expensive lawyer who can grease the right palms. You watch her get off with whatever charges they've got on her. If she wanted to, I bet she could help you beat a rap for robbery and the other stuff."

Some chance of that, Bayley thought. She had no illusion that regardless of Stephanie saying something vague about loyal people going a long way in her organisation, she and Becky were simply insignificant assets who would be useful in prison, but totally expendable if Stephanie ever did get out.

"I don't know about that, Becks, but we really have no option but to work for her. I told her I would do whatever I had to for you and I to be safe and to be together, and I said I felt sure you would see it the same way. I know it's awful for you to have to work for the woman who caused all this to happen to you…"

"I'll do it," Becky cut in. She didn't look happy about it, but her voice was firm and decisive. "Like you said, it keeps us safe, and it keeps us together. For those reasons only, I'll do it."

"Oh, Becky, I love you so much," Bayley gushed. "I can't tell you how much that means to me."

"You don't have to," Becky said. With that, she gave her girl a sloppy kiss.

"Much as I'd love to stay in here and kiss you for the rest of the night, there's something we've got to do before free time ends," Bayley said.

"Which is?"

"We've got to go and tell Stephanie that we're both willing to work for her, or 'loyal to her', as she put it. She demanded to hear it from both of us."

Becky sighed and shook her head again. "Alright, if we must."

"And we'll need to be convincing about it," Bayley added. The last thing she wanted for Becky to walk into Stephanie's cell with that kind of negative attitude. It would drop them straight in hot water.

"I understand," Becky said seriously. "I know how people like her work, and I know people can be taken out in prison. The last thing I want is Alexa Bliss coming up behind me and cutting my throat, so yeah, I'll swear loyalty to Stephanie. What about those morons Emma and Dana?"

"Stephanie had me tell them to get lost," Bayley reported as she got to her feet. "Come on, let's get down there and get this over with, shall we?"

Becky offered her hands for Bayley to pull her up, indicating her willingness to go with her.

Thankfully, when they walked out onto the landing, Bayley saw no sign of Ms Vega. She was probably off tormenting someone else for no good reason.

"You okay?" Bayley whispered to Becky when they reached the door to Stephanie's cell, knowing how hard this was going to be for her.

"Let's just do it," Becky grimaced.

Bayley nodded, then knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response, she pushed it open and led the way inside.

Stephanie was relaxing on her bed, her pillow supporting her back as she lounged with her legs stretched out. She didn't even bother to sit up properly for her visitors. "What's it going to be?" she demanded simply.

"We're here to commit ourselves to working for you," Bayley announced.

"Both of you?" Stephanie enquired, her piercing gaze locked on Becky.

"Both of us," Becky confirmed. "We know it's the best thing to do."

"Damn right it is," Stephanie said smugly. She finally sat up, and pointed to the bed opposite hers. "Sit down. Let me tell you how this is going to work."

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time. The support is much appreciated._

 _Bayley and Becky committed themselves to Stephanie. Will it prove to be the right decision?_

 _Next time, our favourite couple will be assigned a job by Ms Vega. What do you think she has lined up for them? Leave your prediction in a review. I'll shout out anyone who manages to call correctly._


	16. Chapter 16

Minutes before the lights came on to signal wake up time, Bayley had gotten out of Becky's bed and climbed up to her bunk above. Becky had said it would be a smart thing to do because inmates sleeping together was strictly against prison rules, and she had said she expected Vega to try and catch them out, in the hope of giving them a punishment.

Sure enough, literally a matter of seconds after the lights came on, they heard their door being unlocked. Ms Vega opened the door and strode into the cell, an unpleasant look on her face as usual. Her mood probably wasn't improved by finding the inmates in the correct bunks.

"Alright, get up and hit the showers," Vega barked, since there was nothing to lay into them about.

"Morning, Miss," Bayley said tiredly, hoping that her pleasantness would get under Vega's skin.

"Don't morning me, Martinez!" Vega snapped. "Up, now!"

"You shouldn't watch us in a state of undress," Becky said cheekily, still tucked up under her blanket. The comment almost made Bayley laugh.

"The last thing I want is to see you undressed, Lynch. Now get your asses to the showers. Once you're done there, report to me in the canteen area. You're going to be assigned your jobs today."

Becky groaned as she sat up, but she didn't bother answering back. Any more smart ass comments were likely to land them both in water hotter than they would find in the showers. In any case, Vega turned and left the cell.

"God, I hate that woman," Bayley said once the coast was clear.

A grunt of a laugh came from Becky. "Trust me, she's not even started yet."

"At least we're together now," Bayley said as she dropped down from her bunk to the floor. "So long as that's the case, we can get through anything, right?"

"Right," Becky said lovingly. She gave her girl a gentle kiss on the lips.

A couple of minutes later, they left their cell to head for the showers, carrying their things. They found Stephanie McMahon waiting for them near the top of the stairs.

"Stay close to me in there," Stephanie ordered them, not bothering with a greeting. "I don't want any bitches near me while I shower, understand?"

"Yes, we understand," Bayley said.

"You can wait while I shower, then you can have yours afterwards," Stephanie informed them. "Becky, you've got a lot to prove to me, so I've got an assignment for you today. Do it well, and I just might start believing I made the right decision in taking you on."

"Uhm, Ms Vega is assigning us jobs today," Becky reported hesitantly, not wanting to get onto Stephanie's bad side right from the start.

"I know," came the simple response. Stephanie and started down the stairs. "Come on, hurry up, before everyone else gets to the showers before us."

On the way down the stairs, Bayley and Becky exchanged a quizzical glance. They had both picked up on the fact that the news of their jobs hadn't come as a surprise to Stephanie. They were wondering how much she knew about what went on with other inmates, and how she knew it.

Half an hour later, Bayley and Becky were showered and dressed. They made their way to the canteen, as instructed by Ms Vega. They found the ill-tempered guard standing near to the kitchen door waiting for them.

"Take your time, why don't you?" Vega snarled as soon as she saw them.

"We came as quick as we could," Bayley said with a hint of attitude.

"Well it wasn't quick enough!" Vega shouted at her. "Any more backchat from you, Martinez and you'll be on report."

"You have jobs for us, Miss?" Becky enquired, wanting to get the interaction with their nemesis over with as soon as possible.

"Yes, I do. You're on cleaning duty," Vega informed them with a sneer. "You'll start after breakfast, with the canteen. You'll clean all of the tables and the floor. When you've done that, you'll move on to the bathroom."

"How did I know you'd have us scrubbing toilets?" Becky sighed.

"Being unpredictable isn't always one of my strengths," Vega said with a smug expression on her face. She turned around and unlocked the door to the kitchen. Just inside, on the left hand side, there was a door to a cleaning cupboard. She pointed at the door and said, "That's where you'll get your supplies. Bliss and Jax will be cleaning the kitchen at the same time. Please, cause trouble with each other."

"So you can put us all on report?" Becky guessed sarcastically.

"Got it in one," Vega said. "You two dykes and that mouthy slut Bliss are right at the time of my list of worst-behaved inmates. So you'd better have eyes in the back of your heads while I'm around."

"How am I worst-behaved?" Bayley demanded. "I only got here yesterday for Christ's sake."

"Yeah, and you're tarred with the same brush as her," Vega said pointing at Becky. "She's been nothing but disobedient since she got here. If it was up to me, I would have had her shipped out to another prison before now."

Becky's grip on her Irish temper began to fail her. "Yeah, but it's not up to you is it, Vega?" she said aggressively. "And I love how much that pisses you off."

Vega didn't respond directly to the insolence, but Bayley could tell by the look on her face that there would be some future payback coming their way as a result of it. "Move," the guard barked, pointing back towards the canteen, where prisoners were starting to line up for their breakfast.

All too gladly, Bayley led the way over to Stephanie, who was waiting for them near the bottom of the stairs. "I don't think you should keep trying to needle Vega like that," Bayley said quietly to Becky.

"Fuck her," Becky hissed. "There's only so much abuse I can take. And I'm more than sick of being called a fucking dyke."

"Poor choice of partner then," Stephanie said dryly, having heard the last part of the exchange as they approached her.

"Please don't start," Becky said tiredly. "We've agreed to work for you. Can we at least do it without being abused?"

"Jesus, I was just making a joke," Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. "Good news, Ms Fragile. You don't have to wait in line for your food anymore. We go straight to the front of the line."

With that, Stephanie walked in the direction of the serving counter, where Alexa Bliss was handing out the food trays. Bayley followed along behind her new boss, feeling sheepish about skipping the line of prisoners. No one offered any objection, though. All of the inmates knew that Stephanie was the queen bee of C Wing, and speaking up against her would only end badly for them.

"Hi, Stephanie," Alexa said when McMahon stepped forward, blatantly sucking up to her.

"Alexa," Stephanie replied without much interest. "Bayley and Becky are working for me now, in place of Emma and Dana. Ensure they're fed accordingly, alright?"

"You got it," Alexa said deferentially.

Bayley noticed that the portions that found their way onto Stephanie's tray were more than generous.

"Thank you," Stephanie said when her tray was handed to her. She set off for her usual private table at the back of the catering area without waiting for her two employees.

Bayley stepped up to the counter next, noting that Bliss's expression had changed the moment Stephanie's back was turned. She was now serving and evil glare along with her food. "How did you manage to get that job?" Alexa hissed, meaning working for Stephanie.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know," Bayley said mysteriously, savouring stringing the nasty little witch along.

"Yeah, well, ain't nobody here afraid of you," Alexa said, still with a glare on her face.

"That might mean something if it came from someone tall enough to see over the counter," Bayley said. Beside her, Becky burst out laughing.

Despite the unpleasant exchange of words, the diminutive Alexa served Bayley with a tray containing similar portions to Stephanie's. She took it without a word of thanks and made her way over to her boss's table.

"You should start playing nicely," Stephanie said through a mouthful of food as Bayley sat down.

"Just showing her that mouthing off to me isn't a good idea," Bayley said, wanting to sound tough.

"Fair enough," Stephanie said. "Just be careful around that one. I'm not sure all of her dogs are barking."

Becky arrived and sat down next to Bayley. The three of them sat and ate for a few minutes in silence. The relationship, such as it was with Stephanie, wasn't one that leant itself to friendly chatter.

"So, the job I have for you today," Stephanie said after a while. She had a sneaky glance around to see where the guards were. Mr Ambrose and Mr Styles were the ones supposedly keeping watch over meal time, but they seemed to be more interested in chatting to each other than monitoring the prisoners. Stephanie reached around and pulled a folded up brown envelope out from the back of her pants and passed it under the table to Becky.

"What's that?" the Irishwoman whispered.

"Never mind what it is," Stephanie said sternly. "It's what you're going to do with it that concerns you. When you're doing your cleaning after breakfast, a laundry cart will be brought past the rear door of the kitchen and exactly ten AM. You will give this envelope to the man who works for the laundry contractor."

"The rear door of the kitchen will be locked while we're in there," Becky said.

Stephanie gave her a condescending look. "No, Becky, it won't. And this whole arrangement will go a lot smoother for all of us if you stop questioning what I tell you to do and just do it. Think you can manage that?"

"Yes, sorry," Becky said as she hid the envelope down the back of her own pants.

Bayley sat and ate her food in silence, watching and listening to the exchange. It now seemed pretty obvious that McMahon had one of the guards in her pocket. How else could she be sure that a door that was supposed to be locked at all times would be unlocked at a moment that suited her purposes?

"And don't even think about opening the envelope," Stephanie threatened Becky.

"You don't have to speak to me like that," Becky replied. "I wouldn't have agreed to work for you if I intended to mess you around. Bay and I both realise this is in our best interests, so we're doing what you ask of us."

Stephanie nodded. It was the first hint of any kind of respect Bayley had seen from her since they had met.

"Frankly," Bayley said to Stephanie, "We were discussing our situation last night. Becks is virtually certain to be found not guilty of all charges against her, but I'm looking at a long sentence for the robberies I was wanted for, to say nothing of killing Ronda. We figured you might be able to help me, if we served you well enough."

Becky's eyes had widened. She hadn't imagined Bayley was going to be upfront with Stephanie like that about what they hoped to get out of working for her.

For a moment, Stephanie said nothing, instead choosing to slowly chew a mouthful of food, a thoughtful expression on her face. "You figured that, did you?" she asked eventually, without any particular emotion in her voice.

"We need something to hope for," Bayley said, her words especially heartfelt. "And you did say good things could happen if we worked for you."

In that moment, Becky made an impulsive decision. If Bayley was going to sit there trying to convince McMahon that she was worth helping, Becky decided to do the same, and to go all in with it. "Stephanie, how's this for a deal," she said. "You do whatever you have to do to get Bayley out of here. Hire lawyers, grease palms, I don't care. Whatever it takes to stop her being found guilty and given a sentence. I know you can get her off the charges if you put your mind and resources into it, the same way you're undoubtedly going to get yourself off your charges."

"I'm hearing demands, not a deal," Stephanie said icily.

"This deal is this," Becky said. "You make sure Bayley and I both get out and we're together on the outside, and I'll develop the BL-04 chip for you. That's what started all of this, right? You paid Bayley and her crew a million dollars for me and my idea. Here I am, right in front of you." She tapped the side of her head. "I still have the idea right up here. I can remember all of the ins and outs of it. No one else knows how to replicate it. Get me and Bay out of here, both of us, get me a research lab, and the BL-04 is all yours. That's the deal."

Stephanie sat and worked on her breakfast for a couple of minutes, looking like she was trying to decide how to respond. Even an offer as good as that had produced barely any sign of emotion. She looked between Bayley and Becky, with what Bayley considered to be an excellent poker face.

"Okay," she said eventually. "You've got a deal."

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter._

 _Becky struck a deal with Stephanie regarding their freedom. But it will be a while before any can happen with that, so in the next chapter we'll be seeing Becky attempting to carry out the task Stephanie gave her. Will she be able to pull it off?_


	17. Chapter 17

"You have no idea how much I hate this," Becky complained to Bayley.

"Probably about as much as I do," came the reply.

The two women were dressed identically for their first stint on cleaning duty, in blue overalls that had seen better days long ago, and yellow rubber gloves. For the past half hour, they had been scrubbing tables and mopping the floor in the C Wing dining area. It had been a thoroughly miserable experience, made even worse by Alexa Bliss taking verbal jabs at them over the counter from the kitchen area, where she and Nia were also attending to their cleaning duties.

As if hearing homophobic slurs directed at them wasn't bad enough, Bayley looked up and saw Ms Vega unlocking the C Wing entrance gate. The fact that Vega hadn't gone home yet after the end of her shift was a surprise, and not a pleasant one.

"Heads up. Vega." Bayley mumbled, making sure not to look directly at the diminutive, but vicious woman.

"Christ," Becky groaned, immediately working more vigorously with her mop, feeling the need to look like she was hard at it.

"Well, well, well," Vega said theatrically as she walked slowly among the tables, inspecting their cleanliness. Bayley feared the worst, since it was her handiwork that was under scrutiny.

"Not too bad," came the surprising verdict. Vega even gave an approving nod as she reached the two inmates.

"Thanks, Miss," Bayley said, somehow managing a smile that she definitely didn't mean.

Vega's attention shifted to the floor that Becky had been mopping. She scanned over it, from right over on the far side near to the gate, all the way over to where they were standing. "Not bad, Lynch," she decided, before pointing nearby. "Oh, you missed a spot down there."

"Where?" Becky asked irritably, knowing full well that she hadn't.

"There," Vega insisted, still pointing.

"There's no dirt there," Becky said.

Vega gave Becky's mop bucket a hefty kick, sending it over onto its side and spilling the filthy brown water all over the floor. She looked at Becky with a smug grin on her face. "How about now?"

Bayley could see that Becky was livid, and understandably so. She reached out and gently put a hand on her girl's arm - a reminder not to do something stupid. That was exactly what Vega wanted to happen, so that in turn she could inflict a punishment of some kind.

"You'd better get on that," Vega suggested, walking away, with the smile still on her face. She headed over to the side of the kitchen and unlocked the gate that led to corridor that was off limits to prisoners, leading out to the delivery entrance.

Becky looked at Bayley, straight fire in her eyes. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but one day? I want the chance to kill that fucking bitch."

"I hear you," Bayley said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "I wish I could kill her too. But we need to keep our heads down. You made that deal with Stephanie to get us out of this hole. Until then, we need to suck up any shit that gets thrown at us."

"I know," Becky sighed. "As much as I hate it, I know you're right. I need to focus on the fact that Stephanie will help us, and that one day we'll both be free, and we'll be together. I don't know how many palms she'll have to grease to make that happen, but that's her problem. She wants the BL-04, she knows the price."

"Speaking of Stephanie, It's nearly ten AM," Bayley said, glancing at her watch. "It's time you attended to the little, uh, job she gave you."

Becky nodded. "Yeah. Thank god Vega got out of here! I'd better go."

After stripping off her gloves and dumping them on one of the tables, Becky headed for the entrance to the kitchen. The task she had been given by McMahon was to hand an envelope to a laundry contractor, who would allegedly be waiting at the rear kitchen entrance, which apparently wouldn't be locked as it should have been. It all sounded highly unlikely to Becky, but Stephanie was the boss, sadly.

As she walked into the kitchen, Becky saw that she was going to have to walk past Alexa Bliss, who was currently cleaning one of the work surfaces, dressed in the same manner as Becky and Bayley.

Sensing someone's presence, Bliss spun around, immediately effecting a confrontational stance when she saw Becky. "Get back out there, dyke!" she demanded. "This is my kitchen, not yours."

"What are you, ten?" Becky asked mockingly, pushing past the little witch.

"Don't touch me again!" Alexa raged.

"Don't stand in my way then, genius." Becky rounded a corner, approaching the blue painted wooden door that needed to be unlocked if the job was going to be a success. She hoped like hell that Bliss wouldn't follow her, either to see where she was going or to throw some more abuse at her. Either way, it would be a huge problem.

Putting a hand on the door handle, Becky took in a deep breath, willing it to be unlocked. Slowly, she pushed the handle downwards. It moved! The door was indeed unlocked!

Becky opened the door cautiously, then risked sticking her head out into the corridor. There was no sign of any guards. A man in a green work shirt with a name and logo for a laundry company on it was walking her way, pushing a large laundry cart ahead of him. Unsure of how the handover was supposed to go down, Becky simply pulled the envelope out of her overalls and stood there with it in her hand. She had no idea what was in it, and she didn't care, so long as she didn't get caught with it in her possession.

The guy approached, neither quickening nor slowing his pace. He didn't even look at Becky or acknowledge her presence. However, as he walked by her, he made his hand available for her to put the envelope into, which she managed to do without either of them dropping it. Covert operations were definitely not her thing, she realised. It was pathetic how fast her heart was beating, and she was literally sweating in her overalls. But she had done the job!

Now that the deed was done, Becky closed the door and hurried back around the corner, simply focussing on getting back to Bayley with the good news. Bliss was still standing there cleaning the work surface. "What the hell are you doing in here anyway?" she demanded aggressively.

"Just looking for something," Becky muttered offhandedly.

"The cleaning cupboard is over there, idiot," Bliss said, pointing to the other side of the room.

Becky couldn't have cared less about the little homophobe's stupidity. Saying nothing more, she walked through the kitchen and back out into the dining area, where Bayley was busy mopping up the dirty water that Vega had spilled all over the floor.

Noticing Becky approaching, Bayley stood up and leaned on the mop handle, an anxious look on her face. "How did it go?" she asked.

"Like a dream," Becky reported.

Before she could go into any more detail, Becky noticed Stephanie McMahon walking down the stairs from the cells on the upper floors. It didn't take much brain power to figure out that McMahon had been up in her cell, keeping an eye on the time, and was now coming down for news of the exchange.

"Well?" Stephanie asked abruptly of Becky once she was in earshot without raising her voice.

"I did the job," Becky reported, surprising herself by feeling proud of the fact.

"No problems?"

"No problems," Becky confirmed. "I handed the guy the envelope, and no one saw me do it."

"Excellent," Stephanie proclaimed. She even smiled. "There will be more envelopes to hand over."

"Whatever you need, so long as our deal holds up," Becky said.

Stephanie seemed irritated that her sincerity was being brought into question. Both Bayley and Becky filed that away in the back of their minds. McMahon was a real piece of work, there was no doubt about that, but she apparently considered herself a woman of her word. Questioning her in that regard risked angering her, and that would not be a good idea.

"I said you had a deal, didn't I?" Stephanie said icily.

"Yes, sorry," Becky backtracked as quickly as she could. "I was just trying to say that anything you need, I'll do."

Stephanie fixed her with a glare. "Oh, I know that, trust me. From now on, that applies to both of you. If I tell you to walk in front of a train, you ask me what direction I'd like it to be going in."

"I hope you don't mean that literally," Bayley said as a weak attempt at humour.

Apparently a sense of humour was distinctly lacking in Stephanie. She gave Bayley a blank look for a second before taking a quick look around the dining area and turning her nose up at the work they were doing. Cleaning was definitely a long way beneath someone of her standing, in her opinion.

"Get your little jobs done, then get your asses up to my cell," Stephanie ordered. "We've got things to do."

Bayley and Becky shared a look. Neither of them could remember feeling so belittled as they had been by that comment, and Stephanie had done it so effortlessly, too.

"Wow," Bayley muttered when Stephanie was safely over by the stairs.

"Just focus on the fact that we'll be out of here soon," Becky said. It was becoming a mantra for them, and something to cling on to. There was light at the end of the tunnel. It was just a matter of how long it was going to take to get there.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time!_

 _Stephanie certainly seems confident that she can get Bayley and Becky out, to fulfil her part of the deal. How do you think she will do it?_


	18. Chapter 18

Always a light sleeper, Bayley jerked awake the moment a key turned in the lock of their cell door. Something highly irregular was going on. Guards were not supposed to enter cells during the night unless there was a very good reason. There was no such reason for anyone to be entering Bayley and Becky's cell. Either way, she was about to get caught in Becky's bed, which would be an offense worthy of being put on report.

In the darkness, it was hard for Bayley to tell who it was who came into the cell. The figure was short, so it had to be one of the female guards. It struck Bayley as odd that the intruder was obviously moving deliberately quietly, closing the door without a sound.

"What the hell is going on?" Bayley demanded, waking Becky up.

"Shut the fuck up!" a woman's voice hissed as the mystery figure rushed over to the bed. The voice had a hint of Spanish in it, and more than a hint of New York.

"Vega!" Bayley accused. "What are…"

Vega clamped a hand over Bayley's mouth, pushing her head back down onto the pillow.

"Vega?" Becky asked sleepily. "Huh?"

"Shut up, both of you!" Vega hissed. "You're going to get up and get dressed. You're leaving, right now. Now, quietly…" she slowly removed her hand from Bayley's mouth.

Heading the message about being quiet, Bayley kept her voice down this time as she searched for answers about what the hell was going on. "Leaving? What are you talking about?"

"I work for Stephanie, you dumb bitch. Who do you think has been helping the two of you get those envelopes out for the past month? Now get up and get dressed. Move!" Vega whispered urgently.

"You work for Stephanie?" Becky whispered incredulously. "What the hell?"

"Can the explanations wait?" Vega replied in a heated whisper. "Move your fucking asses, for god's sake. You wanted out of this place. This is your chance."

Bayley and Becky kicked off their blanket and started fumbling around for their clothes, not an easy job in the dark. As they did so, Becky said, "What about Stephanie?"

"Obviously she's breaking out too. What did you honestly think was going to happen when she made a deal to get you out of here with her?"

"Uh, we thought she would hire some fancy ass attorney or something," Bayley said.

"Idiots," Vega sighed. "Come on, hurry up!"

"Wait a minute," Becky said, her sleepy brain still catching up. "We're going to break out of prison? We'll be wanted criminals. Bay, I'm not sure about this."

"Becks, it might be the only way I get out of here; the only way we can be together. Stephanie clearly thinks it's the only way she can live up to her end of the deal. If we want to be together, we have to go."

"If you're sure it's the only way, I trust you," Becky replied, finding Bayley's hand and squeezing it.

"Can we shelve the fucking debate and move?" Vega hissed.

During the exchange of words, Bayley and Becky had hurriedly put on whatever clothes and shoes they had been able to locate. "I have no idea what I'm wearing," Becky said.

"We'll be changing soon enough anyway," Vega said. "Now follow me, and don't wake any other prisoners up. We're going up the corridor past the kitchen and out of the delivery entrance."

"What about the other guards?" Bayley demanded.

"I organised Ambrose and Styles to do something over on A Wing tonight. It'll keep them busy the rest of the shift. And I put something in Stratus's tea, so she'll be taking a nap for a few hours. Now let's get out of here already."

As she quietly followed Vega and Bayley out of the cell, closing the door behind them, Becky struggled to comprehend what was going on. She hated Vega more than she had ever hated anyone in her life, and now here was being broken out of prison by her? And the whole time, Vega had been a McMahon employee? How was that even possible? And if it was, why had Vega been such a piece of shit to her and Bayley, along with everyone else on C Wing? None of it seemed to make even a bit of sense. She felt like, given half the chance, she would still kill Vega for everything she had done to her, but now, bizarrely, her life was essentially in Vega's hands.

Outside the cells, there was at least some dim lighting to allow them to see where they were going, intended for the benefit of the night shift guards. Bayley walked right behind Vega, feeling stunned by the events that were unfolding. Breaking out of the prison hadn't been what she'd expected or hoped for, but if it got her out, she was willing to go along with it. Anything was better than doing hard time. Besides, she had the distinct impression that they hadn't been given the option of staying. McMahon wanted Becky and the BL-04, that was what this was really about.

Bayley had so many questions that she wanted to ask, but she knew this wasn't the time or the place. She walked down the stairs towards the dining area as quietly as she could, then across to the gate securing the corridor that led to the delivery entrance.

Vega cautiously unlocked the gate and ushered them through, before locking it again behind her.

"Now what?" Bayley whispered.

"There's a van outside. We're going to be transported out of here in it. How or by who doesn't concern you," Vega replied. She walked over to the nearby rear door of the kitchen, which she had apparently unlocked ahead of time. She stepped through the door and picked some items up from one of the work surfaces just inside. "There are people helping us who you're not permitted to see. You're going to lie in the back of the van with these on." Vega showed them two black hoods.

What concerned Becky more were the other items Vega was holding – two short lengths of rope and a roll of black industrial duct tape. "What are you doing with them?" she demanded, having flashbacks to being tied up and gagged by Ronda, Charlotte, and as weird as it seemed now, Bayley.

"Stephanie's orders," Vega said simply. "Hands in front."

"Not a fucking chance," Becky said defiantly.

Something changed in Vega's eyes. She was no longer the prison guard who liked being a bitch for the sake of it. She was a dangerous woman who wasn't going to take no for an answer. "You made a deal with Stephanie. She gets you out of prison, both of you, you work on the computer chip for her. You're being broken out of prison, as agreed. You're not going to be harmed, you just can't be allowed to see the people who are helping us, and we can't risk you making any noise. So, for a couple of hours, you're going to have a bit of discomfort. After that, once we've changed vehicles a couple of times and gotten a long way from here, you'll be untied. Now, are we going to do this, or am I going to fuck you both up and drag your asses out there?"

"I'd like to see you try," Bayley said aggressively.

Vega cocked her head slightly, looking Bayley right in the eye. "Would you?" she asked in a flat tone that had serious danger behind it.

Suddenly, Bayley knew that wasn't a fight she wanted to get into. Vega was short, but that meant nothing. God only knew what she was capable of. It was best not to find out.

"Bay, it's okay. I don't think Stephanie would go through all of this to hurt us," Becky said. "She could have had us killed a long time ago. Let's do what she says. We're getting out of here. We're going to be together."

Bayley looked at her girl, seeing love and hope in her eyes, not fear. It was all the persuasion she needed. She turned back to Vega and held her hands out, wrists together. "Alright, Vega, have it your way."

"Good," Vega said. She put the hoods and the roll of tape on the floor for a moment and used one of the lengths of rope to tie Bayley's wrists together, plenty tight enough to be secure, but not quite enough to cut off her circulation.

"Never thought I'd be going through this again," Becky sighed as she offered her wrists.

"Boo fucking hoo," Vega replied, devoid of even a trace of sympathy.

Once Becky's wrists were bound, Vega picked up the duct tape, stretched a long length from the roll and tore it free. It was destined for Becky's mouth.

"Love you, Bay. This is all going to be worth it, I promise."

Vega unceremoniously pressed the tape over Becky's mouth, pushing it down tight to seal her lips.

"I know it will, baby," Bayley replied, looking her girlfriend in the eye and trying to convey love with every fibre of her being.

"Jesus Christ, I hope Stephanie doesn't have me keep working with you two," Vega groaned. Clearly romance wasn't a big thing for her.

"The feeling is mutual, trust me," Bayley managed to say, just in time before her mouth was taped shut. Immediately, it wasn't a feeling she liked, being tied up and unable to talk. The tape was thick and sticky, and it definitely wasn't going come off. The feeling of helplessness made her even more sympathetic towards Becky for what she had gone through in the past, and guilty for her part in inflicting it on her. She managed one more look at Becky before Vega put the hood over her head and pulled it down. It almost reached Becky's shoulders. The frightened little squeal that Becky made into her gag made Bayley instinctively want to leap to her defence, but she knew she couldn't, and hopefully, didn't need to.

Without saying anything, Vega unceremoniously reached up and pulled the second hood over Bayley's head and pulled it down to her shoulders. Bayley had expected everything to go dark in that moment, but thankfully there was a little bit of light if she looked down at her feet, since the hood wasn't tight around her neck.

Bayley sensed Vega walking past her, to stand behind her and Becky. Then she felt a hand on her back, pushing her gently forward. "Walk," they were instructed. "Straight ahead to the door, then you'll be helped into the van."

Shuffling forwards, Bayley decided that when the opportunity presented itself, she was going to have serious word with Stephanie about the travel arrangements. No matter how grateful she was for the jail break, it surely could have been handled differently to this?

The slow walk along the corridor seemed to take an age, but eventually Vega ordered them to stop, before brushing past them and unlocking the door. Bayley smelled fresh air, and heard cars on a nearby highway. They were out of the prison!

"About time," a man's voice said. It was fairly deep voice, sounding like it belonged to a big guy.

"These two are hard work," Vega replied to him as Bayley heard a van's door open. "Get them in there and we can move out." It seemed that Vega was still the one giving out the orders.

Bayley felt a large, powerful hand grab her left arm and start shepherding her towards the awaiting vehicle. If her mouth hadn't been taped, she would have demanded to know where McMahon was. Wasn't she supposed to be escaping too?

"Step up," the man ordered. Bayley looked down, trying to see the back on the van through the little gap at the bottom of the hood. Her hesitation was apparently not welcomed. The man grabbed her around the waist and bundled her into the van, sending her crashing onto what felt like a wooden floor. She moaned in pain into the tape as her knee took an awkward landing.

There was another loud bump and a groan of pain – Becky being tossed into the van. With hearing the only thing available to her, Bayley lay in silence and listened to what was going on.

"All set. Let's fuck off." A voice belonging to a different man said. As he had spoken, someone else had climbed into the van. Vega?

The doors banged shut.

"Went like a dream," Vega said. Bayley didn't know who she was talking to.

"Excellent work," Stephanie McMahon said, to Bayley's surprise. She had been in the van all along, Bayley realised as the vehicle started moving.

"I would say sorry about this, ladies, but I'm sure you wouldn't believe me," Stephanie said, addressing Bayley and Becky. "Lie there and be quiet. We'll be changing vehicles a couple of times, courtesy of some associates of mine who insisted we take these… precautions with you. But don't worry, in a couple of hours it will just be the two of you, Zelina and myself. I can have you untied, then, and we can travel in a more civilised manner. This time tomorrow, we'll be at my new compound, which we'll be calling home. Won't that be nice?"

Bayley didn't try to respond. She wasn't even sure if the answer was yes or no. She simply lay there, doing her best to breathe through her nose, already finding the hood uncomfortable and itchy, and feeling the rope around her wrists cutting into her skin. Get through this, she willed herself. Becky was somewhere close by, and they were on their way to freedom, or what their version of freedom was going to be.

* * *

 _A/N: Special thanks to everyone who reviewed last time. Your support is much appreciated._

 _Much to their surprise, Bayley and Becky have been broken out of prison! They're out, and they're together. It's what they wanted, but not how the wanted it. Will they get away successfully, or will they be caught? Let me know what you think will happen next in a review!_


	19. Chapter 19

The uncomfortable journey seemed to have gone on forever to Becky. Lying on the hard floor of a van, her head itchy and covered in sweat under the hood, her wrists tied up and mouth taped shut. None of it was pleasant, to say the least. She was angry and frustrated, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

At one point there had been a vehicle change. All Becky had been able to hear was an exchange between Stephanie and some men. Stephanie had expressed her satisfaction with the appearance of the second van that Bayley and Becky had been bundled into the back of. Becky had hoped that after the change had taken place, she and Bayley would be set free. So far, there was no sign of it happening.

Being bound and gagged had brought back a lot of memories from Becky's original kidnapping. Surprisingly, not all of them were bad memories. Yes, there was the all too familiar feeling of helplessness; of not being in control of her own destiny. But she had also relived her first experiences with Bayley.

Tied to bed in that remote cabin was where she had first seen her girlfriend, with those beautiful dark eyes under the ski mask. And then, after they had fled Ronda and Charlotte, although Becky had still been kept tied to the bed with her mouth taped a lot of the time, she had seen Bayley for the first time. Never in her life had she seem someone so cute, so beautiful. It had been love at first sight for her, as she suspected it had been for Bayley back at the cabin.

Strangely, Becky found herself turned on now by the memory of being tied up and at Bayley's mercy like that. At the time, it had been frightening. Now? She felt like maybe she wanted to try it again. She wondered if that was weird.

"Roadblock up ahead," a man's voice said from the front of the van, startling her out of her thoughts. "On the floor, and cover yourselves up."

"Shit!" Vega exclaimed. "I hoped to have bought us longer than this."

"Lucky we planned for the worst," McMahon replied.

"You heard the man, we're going to have to cover you up," Vega said, obviously talking to Bayley and Becky. Uncharacteristically, some reassuring words followed. "Don't worry. You're going to be okay."

Becky heard a muffled moan from Bayley, along with the sound a cover of some kind being spread out.

Someone lay down beside Becky, and a cover, maybe some kind of blanket, was put over her also. She made sure to stay quiet.

"Not a sound, either of you, or we're all fucked," Stephanie hissed.

Becky felt the van slow down, then come to a stop.

"Evening," a man said front the front of the van. Becky's eyes widened in surprise when she heard him introduce himself and another person as FBI agents. They were in a fake FBI van? Talk about ballsy, she thought.

The man had continued speaking, explaining that he and his partner was en-route to do some forensics work.

A man outside the van asked if they had heard about the prison break, and the driver confirmed that he had.

"I'm going to need to see some ID," the voice outside the vehicle said. It sounded more like someone going through the motions than someone who was suspicious about what he was seeing and hearing.

"Of course," said the other man in the front of the van.

Becky held her breath, feeling sweat trickling down her face. If it all went south now, the four women in the back of the van were all heading back to prison for a long time.

Small talk was still being made while the ID was checked. That had to be a good sign.

"Alright, you're good," came the verdict. Becky thought she heard a small sigh of relief from the person lying next to her, under the cover. She could faintly smell McMahon's perfume. Even the big tough boss lady was getting in a flap.

"Thanks," the driver said. "I hope you get them." He was referring to the escaped prisoners, Becky realised. Very clever.

"Ah, they won't come this way," the other voice complained. "But we'll stand here all fucking night anyway."

"Right," the driver said with amusement. With that, the van started moving again.

For a couple of minutes, no one said anything and no one moved. Then the driver spoke up. "We're past the police cordon now, Stephanie. Should be in the clear. About fifteen minutes until we part ways."

That prompted movement from McMahon and Vega, who tossed the covers away and got up, leaving Bayley and Becky on the floor.

The fifteen minutes, if that was how long it in fact was, dragged by for Becky. She was thirsty, needed to pee, and was drenched in sweat. The freedom she had been promised couldn't come soon enough.

Eventually, the van slowed, made a couple of turns, stopped for a moment, then sounded like it entered a building of some kind.

"Okay, here we are," the driver said as he killed the engine. "Move those two to your van and don't untie them or take those hoods off until we're gone."

"Yes, boss," Stephanie said dryly, not liking orders being given to her. It was supposed to be the other way around.

"Sorry. But you know the deal we made."

"Yes, I do. Zelina, move these two," Stephanie instructed.

The doors at the back of the van opened – Vega complying without a verbal acknowledgement.

Becky moaned in surprise into her gag when her legs were grabbed and she was dragged to the back edge of the van.

"Stand up, and I'll walk you over to the new vehicle," Vega said without any emotion in her voice. She was simply doing a job.

Awkwardly, Becky stood up and was led a few paces before Vega opened another van door and shoved her inside. This time, Becky landed on her front, managing to stop her head hitting the floor. She yelled a protest into the tape, angry at the way she was being thrown around.

"Oh, shut up," Vega said disinterestedly. Becky heard her walking away, along with Stephanie talking to the two men who had helped with their escape.

In moments, Bayley thudded into the van, letting out a pained cry as she landed.

"Bay?" Becky tried to say, producing only a muffled noise. At least she received one in reply.

"The payment has been made," Stephanie was saying. "We'll never work together again, but if the situation arose, I would recommend you."

"Appreciate it," the man who hadn't been driving the van said.

With that, the engine fired back up. The van reversed, then drove slowly away. The two mystery men and the fake FBI van were gone.

"A professional job," Stephanie commented, talking to Vega. Becky heard their footsteps approaching.

"Definitely," Vega replied. "We should be home and dry now. They can't possibly expect us to be outside a cordon that wide, that quickly. They'll assume we're hiding out somewhere."

"By the end of the day, we will be," Stephanie said, right by the back of the van now.

"But not anywhere they're going to be looking," Vega said as she climbed into the van.

Bayley yelled angrily into her gag, just beating Becky to it.

"Yes, alright," Stephanie said theatrically, as if they were being unreasonable wanting to be freed.

Becky felt someone grab her and haul her into a sitting position on the floor. The hood was pulled off her head, and bright light blinded her, causing her to moan and flinch away, closing her eyes.

As her vision adjusted to what she realised were the lights of a warehouse, the first thing Becky saw was McMahon sitting on the opposite side on the van, on a wooden bench of sorts. It was sickening how fresh and well made up she looked compared to the shit state Becky was in. Stephanie looked like she had just been out to dinner, not breaking out of prison.

Vega was sitting Bayley up. She whipped off her hood and tossed into a corner of the van. Becky watched her girl go through the same few moments of blindness, crying in pain in her gag. Even with her hair a mess, soaked in sweat and with her mouth taped, Bayley still looked adorable.

"You look a little warm, ladies," Stephanie said with a hint of amusement.

"Mmmph!" Becky growled at her, narrowing her eyes angrily.

"Please can we leave them like this?" Vega said with a grin, receiving a glare from Bayley.

"I think we've had our fun," Stephanie decided. "Take their gags off and untie them."

As Vega was closest to Bayley, she tore the tape from her mouth first in one swift motion.

"Oww! Jesus Christ!" Bayley protested. "Thanks for the breakout, Stephanie. I think we need to talk about your travel arrangements."

"Ah, relax," Stephanie said with a dismissive hand gesture. "You wanted out of prison, you're out."

Vega tore the strip of tape from Becky's mouth, hurting her skin and her lips. "Fuck!" she cried, glaring at McMahon. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes, it was. You're lucky those guys agreed to bring you along at all. It took a look of persuasion and a lot of money to get them to do it."

"I'm sure it'll be nothing compared to what you can make from the BL-04," Becky said pointedly, before looking at Bayley, who was doing her best to tidy her sweat-soaked hair. "You okay, Bay?"

"I think I will be," Bayley said, a long way from happy about the way she had been treated. "How about you?"

"I need to pee, and I'm thirsty. Apart from that, I'm okay."

"You're going to have to wait until we find somewhere to stop for a piss break," Vega said. "Unless you want to do it the corner of a warehouse, that is?"

"I'll wait," Becky said.

Stephanie had moved closer to the front of the van, where a large bag sat on the floor. She unzipped it and pulled out a bottle of water. "Thirsty, I can help you with. Our friends were kind enough to plan ahead and provide us with water, sandwiches and snacks for the rest of our journey."

Typically, Stephanie fixed herself up with food and drink before passing anything to anyone else, while Vega untied Becky and Bayley's hands. Becky didn't care about the wait, she was just glad when a bottle of water came her way, and she downed the whole thing in one go, immediately feeling refreshed.

Bayley moved over to sit beside Becky, to no objection from Stephanie. They snuggled up to each other, glad that they were together, freed, and apparently safe. The four of them ate sandwiches and potato chips in silence for a while, until Bayley ventured a question.

"So, we successfully broke out of prison. Now what?"

"Now we continue the journey to the compound I've had people working on for the past few months," Stephanie said. "We'll be calling it home, and Becky, you'll be calling it a place of work, too. There's a research lab there waiting for you, and I'm told you'll find it lacking in nothing you need."

Becky nodded. She could hardly complain about the fact that her research was Stephanie's highest priority. After all, it was the only reason she and Bayley had been broken out of the prison.

Vega had pulled a blonde wig out of the bag and put it on, and was trying to get it to look right. Stephanie decided to help her as she continued speaking. "Zelina here is going to do the driving, and one of you will ride up front with her. The other will stay in the back with me."

Becky didn't bother objecting. She was in a position now where she had to take orders from Stephanie, no matter what they were. One thing she definitely didn't want to do any more than she possibly had to was spend time with or around Vega. Even though they were now somewhat 'on the same team' or whatever, she hadn't forgotten all of the nasty things Vega had done to her and to others in the prison. "I'll stay in the back," she decided.

With a nod, Stephanie went along with her. "Bayley, you're up front. Get yourselves sorted out. We need to get back on the road."

* * *

 _A/N: Special thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter._

 _Next time, we'll be with Bayley as she rides in the front of the van. I've had people request a bit more backstory on Bayley's character regarding her criminal past and such, so we'll get into that. If any of you have a question you would like Vega to ask Bayley, leave them in a review. I'll use any good ones I get!_


	20. Chapter 20

"Blonde doesn't suit you, Vega," Bayley opined, matter of fact, studying the wig that she was wearing.

"Neither would a prison cell," Vega replied in the emotionless tone that Bayley was starting to get used to hearing. She hadn't even taken her eyes off the country road that they had been travelling along for the last half hour.

Now that they were out of the prison and she had dropped the bitchy head guard routine, Vega came across to Bayley like someone who was all business; focused on the job at hand and willing to do whatever was required to get things done. It was quite a change from the viewpoint of someone who had been frightened of the woman for the past month, and had hated her to the point of feeling like she wanted to kill her. Bayley decided to try and clear the air between them, since they were inevitably going to be spending a lot of time in each other's company.

"So what was all that about in the prison?" she asked. "You treated me and Becks like shit, along with everyone else."

Vega glanced over at her and briefly raised an eyebrow a little. "You might have hated me, but at no point did you doubt I was a genuine prison guard, right?"

"Definitely not," Bayley admitted. "I hated you with a passion. I might well have killed you if I'd have felt like there was a chance of getting away with it. That was how much I despised you. But no, I would never have doubted you were anything but a prison guard – a vindictive bitch who got off on having a job where she could torment people who couldn't fight back and defend themselves."

"There's your answer," Vega said simply. "I had my cover down perfectly. I would have thought someone like you would understand that. I read your file. I saw some details on the methods you employed on the robberies you were wanted for."

Bayley looked out of the window at the countryside that was flashing by. Vega had an excellent point, and one that Bayley couldn't argue with. Her cover in the prison had been absolutely perfect. And what forethought by McMahon to have her there, just in case the day came where she was arrested. "I do understand, and I respect it," Bayley admitted.

A small nod of acknowledgement was the only response. Even so, Bayley felt like it was the first time a bit of mutual respect had passed between them. They certainly didn't like each other, but they knew that the other had talents – talents that would prove useful in re-establishing the McMahon empire, which was the endeavour that Bayley and Becky were now going to be a part of. Better that than rotting in a prison cell, she reasoned. However, Bayley hadn't forgotten some of the homophobic comments that Vega had made to her and Becky. She still had a nasty taste in her mouth about that, and she wanted answers.

"You made a lot of nasty comments to me and to Becky in that prison. I need to know if you're homophobic, or if that was part of your act? Because if you really feel that way, I'm going to have a problem working with you, I'll tell you that now."

Again, Vega didn't take her eyes off the road. "First off, you're going to have no say in who you work with or when. Stephanie or I will tell you what you're going to do, when and how you'll do it, and who you'll do it with. But to answer your question, I really don't give a shit who you choose to share a bed with. It makes no difference to me."

"Alright, so why did you continue tormenting me and Becky after you found out we cut a deal with Stephanie?" Bayley demanded.

Vega shook her head in exasperation. "Come on, Bayley, you're smarter than that. I was hardly likely to start treating you differently to the other prisoners, was I? I was a bitch to everyone, in every way I could be. Period."

"I guess," Bayley sighed. After a moment of silence, she decided to move on, since she actually believed Vega that she couldn't care less about her sexual orientation. "How long did you work at the prison? Seems like some serious planning by Stephanie to have you there just in case she was ever arrested."

"That's Stephanie for you," Vega said, her voice full of respect for her boss. "There's no smarter person in the world than her, I can promise you that. Eight years ago, she told me to get a job as a guard in that prison. I wasn't keen on the idea, but of course I did it. I'm loyal, and Stephanie always looked after me with money and such. I worked my way up to head guard, all with a day like today in mind. Breaking Stephanie out of that shit hole feels like the successful completion of a very long, very arduous mission to me."

Bayley took in everything that she had learned in that response. McMahon apparently inspired a serious amount of loyalty from her people. It was striking that Vega had given eight years of her life for the cause, and seemed to be nothing but pleased to have done so.

"So what's your story?" Vega asked before Bayley could follow up with anything else. "I read your record. You were wanted for a lot of robberies, as well as kidnapping and murder. No offense, but you don't exactly look the type."

For the first time since the breakout, Bayley smiled. "That was kind of the point, at least as far as the robberies were concerned. The easiest way to break into somewhere or rob someone is for them not to even suspect anything is wrong until you've done the deed and you're long gone."

"Okay, talk me through one of your robberies," Vega said. To Bayley's pleasant surprise, she sounded genuinely interesting.

Bayley took a moment to think of a good example from her list of successful jobs. "There was one time I got a tip off about an expensive necklace someone had seen in a pawn shop. Whoever sold it there clearly hadn't known exactly what they had on their hands, but my contact was able to ID it and give me the tip off in exchange for a cut if I was able to steal it and sell it on."

"You robbed a pawn shop? How?"

"It was actually easy," Bayley said, enjoying having Vega on the hook with her story. "I had a really good fake ID showing me as a detective. That proved useful more than once, definitely justifying what it cost me. Anyway, I went into the pawn shop dressed in a smart suit, stuck the ID in the owner's face and told him I was working on a jewellery store robbery. I told him he had one of the items in question in his possession and I needed to requisition it as evidence."

Vega glanced at her, a doubtful look on her face. "And he fell for that?"

"That's what I'm explaining to you. He had no reason to doubt I was a detective. It's called compliance with authority. He believed I was a detective, so he did what I told him. He even packaged the necklace up for me for transport. I gave him a fake form and filled in a bogus evidence number for him, to make him believe he would possibly be able to get the necklace back after the investigation…"

"And you walked out of there, bold as brass," Vega finished, a hint of admiration in her voice.

"Exactly." Feeling like she was on a roll now, Bayley decided to give another example of her prowess. "Another time, there was a rich family who had an expensive painting I wanted to steal. It was on the wall in their kitchen."

"If you're about to tell me you walked into their house and stole it while they were there…"

"Got it in one," Bayley grinned. "I made myself a little ID badge for a utility company, put on some work overalls and a hi-vis jacket and parked an unmarked white van a short distance down the street from their house. I knocked on the door, and the woman answered it. I told her we had been working on the water main just down the street, and asked if I could come in and run her water for a few minutes to test it. She didn't ever bother with more than a cursory glance at the ID before telling me I could do whatever I needed. She just walked off into her living room or whatever and left me to it, so I went into the kitchen, took the painting off the wall and left with it. I'm sure I was long gone before she realised what had happened, since I left the water running in the kitchen."

"That's some gutsy work right there, Bayley. Maybe I was wrong about you," Vega said with genuine respect.

"Thanks," Bayley said with a nod. "I don't have a huge set of skills, but I was good at what I did."

"Apparently you didn't make a bad kidnapper, either," Vega commented.

"Honestly, that was mainly Ronda and Charlotte's work. I just drove the van. But yeah, we managed to take Becky without any problems, and if Stephanie hadn't been arrested, we would have come through on our end of the deal."

"Yet here you are now calling Becky your girlfriend. I'm not sure how that happens?"

The way the question had been phrased irritated Bayley. "I'm not calling her my girlfriend, she is my girlfriend," she snapped. "As weird as it undoubtedly sounds to you, we pretty much fell in love at first sight. After the kidnapping plan fell through with Stephanie's arrest, I overheard Charlotte trying to convince Ronda that the best idea was to keep the half a million, kill Becky and dump her body somewhere."

"That would have been the smart play, quite frankly," Vega commented in that emotionless tone.

"Maybe if you're a cold-hearted killer. I'm not. I couldn't stand by and have an innocent woman murdered in cold blood. That was why I took Becky and fled with her. I've done a lot of bad things in my life, but I'm not a murderer."

Vega looked at her for a second. "You murdered Ronda Rousey."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Bayley said faintly. "It was her or me. I had to shoot her or she was definitely going to shoot me. But yes, I killed her. I never wanted to kill anyone, and I damn sure don't want to kill anyone again. I don't need another death on my conscience."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Bayley's words seemed to linger in the air like a bad smell. Hating the feeling, Bayley decided to make some kind of conversation just to have something else to say. "This place we're going to, where we're going to live. What's it like?"

"I think you'll be okay with it," was the simple and rather unhelpful reply.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on yesterday's update. I tried to work in some of the suggestions I got into this chapter, so I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Bayley?_

 _Next time, our heroes will be arriving at their new home. What do you think it will be like? Let me know in a review!_


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